Children of Devils
by Nat-N-Mischa
Summary: 5 years pass. The war rages on, but it has become a cold war, fueled by espionage and propaganda. Dean and Elizabeth deserted the South in their search for Olivia and are still determined to bring her back home, but an accident changes their plans. Forced to make a decision for the sake of their unborn child, Dean finds himself back in the one place he swore he would never be.
1. If You Want Blood

_AN: Hello! Quick note, this is a sequel to Soldiers and Devils, so I recommend reading that first if you haven't already. The events here take place 5 years after the conclusion of that story, and Elizabeth and Dean have been fugitives from the south for that whole time, looking for information on Olivia and Sam. Enjoy!_

She was pregnant. Elizabeth was pregnant. She was pregnant with his child and they had gone rogue from the army and would be court marshaled if they went back.

Dean rarely felt terror but he did now and it was all encompassing. Under different circumstances he would have been ecstatic, would have rushed to see Elizabeth and revel in how happy they were. Now, what had they done? He was putting their child in danger and it amazed him how quickly and strongly he felt about protecting something he had just found out about. Now here they were, smack dab in a Northern hospital under aliases and they would have to run. What could they do?

He walked into the hospital room and saw Elizabeth on the bed. The cut on her side was bandaged up and her ribs were splinted. Now he understood the reaction she had given him after the fall, telling him they had to go to the hospital instead of letting him patch it up himself. Elizabeth saw him and smiled.

"Hey." She said wincing a little as she stood up.

"You don't have to do that." Dean said. That gave him away. Elizabeth's smile faltered.

"The doctor told you?" She asked and Dean nodded.

"How long have you known?" He asked,

"Just a few days. I bought a pregnancy test when I went to get us food." Elizabeth said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dean said and his voice showed some hurt.

"I wanted to, Dean. I was trying to find the right time to tell you and I was going to tell you tonight when we got to another motel. I just wanted us to have a few hours of quiet to talk." Elizabeth felt tears form in her eyes, baby emotions.

"I'm not angry." Dean said moving to stand in front of her. "Honestly, despite everything, I am so happy."

"You are?" Elizabeth said. Dean leaned down and kissed her, trying to pour every amount of how he felt into the kiss. Elizabeth returned it, they could do this; whatever this was supposed to be.

"Well, then let's talk." Elizabeth said as they broke apart. Dean nodded.

They began to plan and Dean made a call.

"Dean." Benny answered.

"I'll send you my coordinates, and I want you to send soldiers over. I'm turning us in. We're joining the North." Dean said. Elizabeth was holding his hand.

"Are you crazy man?" He heard Benny say. "What makes you think they are going to listen?"

"Give me over to Sam." Dean said, "I have to do this."

"You're going to get yourself killed." Benny told him,

"No. I won't." Dean replied.

Dean hung up the phone and texted Benny the coordinates.

"Now we wait." Elizabeth said her hand going over her stomach.

"If anything goes wrong, run." Dean said. "That's an order."

It was half an hour later when people could be heard moving out of the way as heavy boots could be heard through the halls. Sam entered the room, almost seeming too large.

"Sammy." Dean said.

"Check him and her." Sam ordered and Dean and Elizabeth were patted down as Dean had his knife, gun and other knife removed.

"Why are you doing this?" Sam asked.

"You took Olivia and her baby, the South's government is corrupt from the inside out, Elizabeth and I have decided to leave. We are joining the North." Dean said.

Sam cocked his head to the side, appraising Dean and Elizabeth.

"You're going to have to prove that." He said and he smiled.

"Fine." Dean agreed. "Can we just get out of this place? You know I hate hospitals."

Elizabeth was quiet, letting Dean speak for them figuring he knew his brother better than she did. Now however, Sam looked at her. "And what about you?" He asked with a frown.

"I said we, didn't I?" Dean interrupted and one of the men kicked his knee out dropping him to the ground with a grunt.

Sam ignored his brother, focusing on her instead. "I want to hear it from you." He looked down at her and Elizabeth refused to give him the satisfaction of breaking the stare as she answered. "He said we, didn't he?"

One corner of Sam's mouth twitched up for a moment and then he stepped forward grabbing her chin sharply in his hand tilting her head back further. "Just because you were the biggest bully in your sandbox don't think you get any brownie points with me, sweetheart. I'm the biggest bully around here, you got it?"

"Got it." Elizabeth replied, and he let go.

"Cuff them both and get them out to the transport." Sam ordered and left the room.

Dean was hauled to his feet roughly, and both had their hands shackled behind them.

"So much for a family reunion," Dean muttered, and the same man shoved him forward. Dean spun on his heel facing the man. "You got a problem with me man?" He asked.

The soldier flipped up the visor on his helmet and Dean's face contorted in horror for a split second before regaining the impassiveness. Alastair. "Hey there, freckles." He spoke with an odd cadence to his voice, and a constant condescending tone. "Miss me?"

He hadn't accounted for this. Alastair was the rare breed of soldier that didn't just carry out torture and interrogations. He genuinely enjoyed them. Even Sam didn't seem so horrible in comparison to this monster of a man, but that was the point. Dean remembered from his few years as a Northern soldier that Alastair was kept out of the press, never mentioned publicly. This gave them a secret advantage over the South. And Dean would know. Alastair had trained both him and Sam in their early years.

He had no way to communicate to Elizabeth that the plan had hit a hitch. How could he have expected Alastair to be here? Of all places? Serving under Sam? Things could get pretty dicey from here.

They were moved to a facility in an abandoned warehouse district and soldiers kept a firm hold on both of their arms as they walked in. The place looked like it hadn't been used since the economic downturn that started the whole conflict. In fact the only things that seemed new were a few tables set up to one side with computers and recording equipment on them. Dean was made to sit in one of the chairs in the room and expected Elizabeth to be led to the other, but instead the soldiers walking her kept moving toward a door that led to another room.

"Where are you taking her?" Dean asked sharply, trying to stand again, but he was pushed back down and this time cuffed to the chair.

"Don't worry freckles, as long as you do what you're told she's fine." Alastair said, pulling a pocket knife out of his uniform and flipping it playfully in his hand. "Long time no see, Dean. How are you?"

The door closed behind Elizabeth and Dean let his head slump back a little. The main door to the warehouse opened again and all the soldiers snapped to attention. Dean didn't have to look up to know who had entered.

"Dean," Sam greeted coming into his field of view.

"I swear, Sam, if you hurt her, the deal is off." Dean warned.

"Hurt her?" Sam looked offended at the thought. "Why would I waste such a wonderful asset? Besides, I need her, Dean. Look at yourself. Are you sure you're really a soldier?" He tutted under his breath. "So worked up over one little teammate."

"Sam, you have what you want. Test me. Interrogate me. Do whatever you feel you have to. Your beef is with me, not her." Dean tried to reason with his brother.

"We'll see." Sam turned and headed towards the room Elizabeth was in, ignoring Dean's short lived shouts after him. He opened the door and relieved the soldier standing guard next to it. Elizabeth was seated at a table with one of her hands bound to a metal bar around the rim. She sat with her spine rigid and eyes cast downward as he entered.

"You really messed up you know." Sam opened, pulling out the chair across the table and sitting. He leaned it back on two of its legs lifting his long legs to cross his ankles on the corner of the table.

Elizabeth looked up but didn't speak.

"Cashing in with Dean I mean. He's a time bomb. I would know," He tapped his own head. "We're the same you know. He's just a bit slower on the uptake than I was. Call it his rebellious period I guess."

"You're not the same." Elizabeth argued shaking a loose strand of hair out of her face.

"Oh? And how would you know?"

"You're a monster. Dean is a hero." Elizabeth replied. She felt dirty and exhausted and her ribs hurt, but she ignored all that. "You share some DNA. That's all."

Sam chuckled darkly. "Wow, my big brother sure has you fooled, doesn't he?" He abruptly took his feet down and straightened the chair leaning his hulking frame over the table. "A hero, huh? Did he tell you what his job was when he was with us?"

Elizabeth refused to answer, hoping that her face didn't betray her curiosity. Dean rarely talked about his few years before he defected to the South.

"Guess not. Well I have news for you, sweetheart: Dean isn't the hero you make him out to be. He was an interrogator for our side back in the day. I'm pretty sure you're up on what that means, right?"

"Torture." Elizabeth spat out. "To you it's code for torture."

"Very good. Someone's been doing her homework." Sam grinned,

"Why are you telling me this? It doesn't matter!" She argued.

"It matters. You'll see. Now I need you to do something for me, sweetheart." Sam stood and came around the table pulling something out of his pocket. Elizabeth flinched away when she saw the glint of a knife. "Scream."

Back out in the main area Alastair directed for Dean to stand up, and when he refused to comply he was simply hauled to his feet. He resisted as much as he could, trying to just be dead weight, but the number of soldiers dragging him around made it inevitable they would get him where they wanted him. So he found himself with his bound wrists suspended from a chain over his head pulled just tight enough that his boots were barely scraping the floor. All the weight was on his shoulder joints and he knew before too long he'd be in excruciating pain.

Alastair studied him thoughtfully. "It's a shame really Dean, you had so much potential." Someone handed him a coil of rope, and it wasn't until he griped the handle and snapped it in the air that Dean realized what the thing truly was.

He clenched his teeth and his eyes widened a bit, but outwardly Dean refused to show his feelings. "Not feeling chatty today huh freckles?" Alastair resorted to the old nickname to bite at Dean, and it worked.

He heard the snap of the whip for the second time barely a moment before a flash of blinding pain bloomed across his back. A gasp and then a few short sharp breaths were all Alastair got out of him.

"That one was a warning freckles. In case you forgot what happens when I get angry." He moved around so he was in front of Dean again. "So here's the deal. You said you're one of us. Truly, I believe you. But one Sam Winchester seems to have trouble trusting his own brother, I can't imagine why. I do think there's a way you can convince him though." He nudged at Dean's knee with the toe of his boot causing him to rock a little and spin slowly, straining his shoulders further.

"Ahh," Dean let out the first acknowledgment of his pain, "Really," He said breathlessly, "If he doesn't trust me that sounds like a personal problem." He started to laugh, but it made him shake more and he stopped quickly.

Another snap and another line of white hot pain flashed across him. A horse shout left his body without his permission.

"I'd listen up if I were you freckles. See we all know you're really still one of us under all that bravado. You miss it. You miss all the blood, and the screams. I bet they never let you near interrogations down South, much too dangerous. It's a shame really that they wouldn't let you use the best skillset you have. I can't take all the credit of course, but I do like to think I had a part in molding you boys into men." Alastair liked to hear himself talk, and with a captive audience he just kept going and going. "Now let's be frank here freckles, I'm trying to help you if you'll let me. Now Sam, he doesn't trust you, but he _really_ doesn't trust your little love bird in there."

As if on cue a chillingly familiar scream rang through the warehouse, echoing off all the empty walls.

Dean's head snapped up "Elizabeth!" He twisted in the restraints. "Leave her alone! Swear to God I'll kill anyone who touches her!"

The first scream had barely stopped echoing when it was followed by another, higher pitched one.

"Stop it!" Dean shouted trying in vain to free himself. God if anything happened to her he'd never forgive himself. And the baby, _please, just keep them both safe_ he prayed silently.

"If you would just listen to me freckles you'd already know how to make it all stop." Alastair continued. "So as I was saying, Sam doesn't trust Elizabeth as far as he can throw her, which while it might be farther than most people, ain't cutting it. But I think I know how to kill two birds with one stone,"

"Just tell me you son of a bitch." Dean rasped fighting to keep calm. The screams had stopped for now.

"It's simple really, someone needs to go in there and find out what she knows. Who better than the prodigal son returned to us at last?" Alastair grinned and flicked his wrist softly enough that the whip danced in the air instead of cracking.

"No." Dean flat out refused. "I won't hurt her."

"Shame." Alastair brought his hand up and cracked the whip three times in quick succession all three hitting Dean in the shoulder blades that were already on fire. The second stroke cut through the back of his uniform jacket and shirt, leaving his bare skin exposed to the lash the third time.

He screamed. And as the sound died he heard Elizabeth echo the sound from behind the closed door.

"You know how to make it stop freckles." Alastair shrugged bringing the whip down once again, tearing a new slash in his clothes. Each lash had him tense up and then simply hang like dead weight, his joints were screaming, and his back was on fire.

His mind refused to accept that the screams of his wife carrying their baby were really happening and as the whip cut through the bare skin on his back again he gasped out, "Ok! For the love of God just stop! I'll do it!"

Alastair dropped the whip to the ground and came up close to look him in the eye. "Good choice freckles."

The chain was lowered until his feet were flat on the ground. He swayed a little as the weight of his own body was too much for his exhausted muscles, and when the pressure on his shoulders was lifted his muscles screamed in protest, but he was able to slowly lower his arms to his sides and breathe deeply a few times to help the pain subside.

Alastair held out a standard issue black army knife that folded into its handle. Dean's hand was shaking a little more than he'd like it too as he took it. He couldn't tell if it was muscle fatigue or fear.

"One more thing freckles." Alastair pointed to the recording set up off to the side. "We have eyes and ears in that room. Just in case you had anything planned, know that this was just a taste of what I'd like to do to your little angel if I get a crack at her."

As he wearily nodded and turned to cross to the door, it opened and Sam exited towards him. There was a smudge of blood on his right hand. Elizabeth's blood. Dean was livid, but forced himself to remember his aim. He walked past Sam, who grabbed his shoulder and muttered under his breath. "If you say one word to her outside interrogation parameters, I'll shoot her in front of you. Clear?"

Dean clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. "Crystal."

Sam strode on and settled at one of the chairs in front of the recording set up.

Dean forced himself to breathe; he knew how to do this. He could make it look good and avoid serious injury. If only he could make her see how much he didn't want to do this.


	2. Bad Reputation

_AN: As a Valentines present, here's chapter 2. Normally I'll be updating every other day, depending on how my schedule goes. I have quite a fair bit written in advance, but I haven't come to the conclusion of the story yet!_

He wrenched open the door, not knowing the state he would find her in. He was surprised to see that she seemed fine, apart from a small cut on her forearm smeared with blood. He realized what had happened almost as soon as he saw the blood. He'd been played. Sam probably sat in here and said if she didn't scream when he said so he'd kill her, or maybe Sam said he'd kill him, either way he was suddenly enraged.

Elizabeth looked up at the door opening again, but when she registered it was Dean, not another monster she relaxed. "Dean, Oh my God, Sam said he was going to kill you if I didn't-"

"Shut up" He cut her off rolling his shoulders trying to restore some feeling and blood flow.

"What? Dean what's going on out there? I heard you, I thought-"

"I said," Dean said slowly flicking the blade open "Shut. Up."

Her blue eyes went wide and she tried to understand what she was seeing.

Thankfully she didn't speak again so he didn't have to do anything to her just yet.

He sank into the chair Sam had vacated and leaned over the metal table eyeing her curiously.

She cocked her head to the side a little asking what was happening, he glanced quickly from left to right hoping that the cameras weren't good enough to pick up on the subtle communication.

"I'll be asking questions now got it?" He said leaning back again twirling the knife handle between his fingers.

She nodded softly looking scared. It killed him knowing that she probably thought the worst of him right now. But for her sake he forced himself to go on.

"What is your name?"

"Elizabeth" She replied.

"Full name." he clarified.

"Dean, you know my name," She said, and in a flash he'd grabbed her free arm and pressed it in a steel grip to the table, the point of the knife pressed into the flesh of her inner arm.

"Full name." He repeated, pressing hard enough for a bead of blood to appear.

"Elizabeth Irene Winchester." She said staring at him with a look that he had prayed to never see directed at him again. Fear. Cold blooded fear.

And so it went. From that point on the basic information was easy to get.

Age? 26

Date of Birth? March 22,

Current rank in the military? Black Ops Level 4

Current military status? Rogue Agent

"Tell me about your family." Dean said, surprised at how easily the standard list of prompts came back to him.

"I don't see how they matter." Elizabeth retorted.

Dean sighed. He wasn't sure why he thought she might make this easy on both of them and just cooperate, she certainly never had in the past. That was how they'd gotten into this whole mess in the beginning.

"You don't make that call sweetheart." His green eyes were glass, emotionless.

"I'm just about done with this game." She warned.

"I'd advise against that," Dean meant for it to sound off hand, but he hoped she'd pick up on the rising panic in his voice.

"I don't really give a shit what you'd advise." She retorted.

Dean hesitated for a split second before he was up and coming behind her with the knife pressed to her divot in her collarbone.

"Well?" Elizabeth challenged, maybe she thought he wouldn't really do it. Hell he wasn't sure he _could_ do it. But he had to, this would save both of their lives.

He cut her and she screamed. He cringed at the sound, but he was behind her and she didn't see.

"This is such an easy question," he reminded her, "We haven't even gotten to the tough stuff yet."

"Fine. I'm the oldest child, I have a sister who isn't involved in the army, and my parents didn't want me to join." She said through gritted teeth.

Out in the main area, Sam was watching with interest through the grainy camera feed, listening to Dean slip easily back into his favorite role. He knew Dean better than anyone, so it didn't surprise him that no one else seemed to pick up on his tells. He was hesitating far more than he normally would, but that was to be expected. He also kept bringing his hand up to his mouth like he was going to bite at his nails but refrained. Sam did that too, he'd learned it from Dean was a young child.

"Who was your commanding officer in the South?" Dean asked. Sam noticed Elizabeth's eyes flash up at him before looking back down.

"Commander Harvelle."

"Who was really," Dean led.

"Dean Winchester." Elizabeth said, it looked like she was on the verge of tears now. Good. Sam needed to see her break before he'd be ready to accept that she was really betraying her country for them.

"And why was I under an alias?" he asked, Sam knew the answer, knew Dean and Elizabeth did too. He wondered if she'd admit it to him though.

"Because you were wanted for war crimes. Only the top level security clearance knew who you really were, and that you'd changed sides." Elizabeth replied resting her forehead in her hands.

"And the name Harvelle came from?" Dean asked, Sam leaned into the screen. This one he didn't know.

"No."

"Elizabeth, don't do this now." Dean warned.

"I'm not throwing her into this too. Not after all that she's been through already." Elizabeth was firm. As Sam watched Dean turned her chair so that he could get in front of her. He crouched down and ran a hand softly over her cheek. She flinched away from his touch. Perfect.

"Please, just answer the question," Dean said quietly, almost tenderly. He was getting dangerously close to testing whether Sam would carry out his threat.

"I can't turn on her," Elizabeth replied. "Don't make me." That was the closest she would come to begging him.

"Then I'm sorry." He replied impassive and tore open her jacket revealing the issued grey t shirt underneath. He cut short little lines in strategic places that he knew held sensitive nerves, but wouldn't cause lasting damage. Each cut left her shaking and moaning in pain, but she refused to talk to him again.

"Sam was right about you two." She said as he backed off finally. She let out a ragged breath and looked sharply at him. "You're exactly the same. You're just better at hiding it."

He dropped the knife with a clatter on the floor and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Sam looked up to see his brother across the room leaning back against the wall. He stood and crossed to Dean who slid down the wall until he was resting on the balls of his feet and huddled with his arms around his knees.

It took until he was within speaking distance to realize Dean was crying. He looked up when Sam's footsteps stopped. "I'm a monster Sammy." He mumbled, clearly broken. Sam crouched down in front of him and helped guide him to his feet. When Dean saw his own blood stained hands he let out a gasp and refused to look down at them again.

"I believed you." Sam said with the kindest smile Dean had seen on his face in years, "Welcome back brother."

Dean cringed at the implications of his acceptance but looked meaningfully at the room that still held his pregnant wife. ""What about her?"

"She's difficult." Sam said with a sigh. "I don't know her like you do Dean. Do you trust her?"

"She's my wife Sam. I trust her." Dean said readily. "And she trusts me. She did trust me." He corrected.

"I'm sorry I had to make you do that Dean, I needed to know for sure." Sam explained. "If you trust her then that's points in her favor, but she's not like us, she's South, born and bred. I need to know she won't be a security risk, the higher ups need to know that she won't cause trouble."

"I need to talk to her Sam, tell her it was a test that we both passed. I just need to," Dean tried to go for the door again but Sam held him back.

"I can't let you do that Dean," He said with a sad frown, "Not yet."

Dean wanted to scream and shout at Sam, if someone made him hurt Olivia how would he feel, but then he realized he knew exactly why Sam was doing what he was doing. He'd been in Dean's shoes years ago. It didn't make the situation any easier, but it did provide a framework.

"So what happens now?" Dean asked eyeing the group of soldiers. They all wore the same uniform so he'd lost Alastair in the crowd, but he still didn't like that monster of a man being in the same country as his unborn child.

"I want to talk to my sister in law some more." Sam said with a nod towards the door.

Dean tensed visibly next to him, but Sam held up a hand and placated his brother. "Just talk, no knives, no guns. You can watch on the monitor and if you don't like what you see come stop me. Deal?" He held out his hand, it still had traces of a bloody smear on it. Dean shook it with his own bloody hand and felt like he was going to vomit.

Sam clapped him on the shoulder and nodded reassuringly before he walked off towards the room. He opened the door to find Elizabeth quietly wiping tears away from her face as she held the hem of her t shirt over one of the still bleeding cuts. She looked up as he came in and sighed. "Why don't you just kill me? You've taken everything from me already."

"I am sorry about before." Sam said with a surprising gentleness that immediately put her on edge. "It was unpleasant but necessary."

"I'm sure you say that to all the girls." Elizabeth replied with a snarl, but it was lacking in conviction. Sending Dean in had rattled her, which was what he wanted. Now maybe he could get some straight answers out of her.

"Why are you here?" Sam asked suddenly.

"Because you brought me in here and cuffed me to the damn table." Elizabeth replied raising her shackled hand clinking metal on metal.

"Cute, but I mean it. You had a normal life in the South, probably could have just grown up normal, relatively happy. Got a job and just had a happy little life. Why are you here instead of there?"

Elizabeth sighed. "Dean told you this already, do we have to keep going over and over the same things. I know what you're trying to do. Make me screw up, contradict myself, maybe catch me in a lie so you can justify killing me and just have your perfect little killing machine back." Sam was pretty sure if he could see Dean right now his brother would have flinched at the comment.

"You've done a pretty good job of speaking for yourself thus far." Sam shrugged. "Besides, everyone's motivation for doing things is different, even if the end is the same."

Elizabeth let out a disgusted sound and slammed her fists on the table. "You want to know why I'm here?" She snapped looking intensely into his eyes. "Because 6 years ago I signed up for the army thinking I could help. I thought I could do some good for my country. But from day one I had to prove myself twice as hard as the other recruits because I have a second X chromosome! And then I find out that my commander isn't actually who he says he is, he's the brother of a wanted terrorist, an ex-terrorist himself. I thought, ok, no one's perfect, we all have secrets. I accepted that, I was ready to fight and die for my country. Then guess what, I get set up to take the fall for a failed mission that got me captured and tortured by you. Thanks for that by the way. But I got out, and met Olivia. She was the only reason I got through all that shit, and then you came back again you son of a bitch and take her away too! And when I wanted to tear the world apart to save my best friend and her child, I was told the risk was unacceptable and to let it go. I did not fight my way to the top of a chauvinistic regime to be told that no sorry, we can't let you do that, best just move on and forget them! I'm here because that is unacceptable, so yeah we left! Honestly at this point, fuck the South. Fuck the North too. I couldn't give a shit which one of you wins so long as I get what I want!"

Having said her bit she deflated and rested her head on her palm. "So if you're going to kill me or whatever just do it because I'm honestly so tired of all of this bullshit."

"So am I." Sam sighed and stood. He came around the table fumbling in his pocket for something and Elizabeth tried to scoot the chair back away from him as he closed in but the shackle on her wrist held her fast. She froze when he produced a little silver key and gently gripped her wrist so he could release her hand. Once the shackle fell away he let go and she snatched her hand back like he'd bitten it, rubbing the chafed skin.

"So now what? Elizabeth asked, still not trusting him, which he expected and was fine with, he didn't trust her fully either.

"Now we all take a fieldtrip to headquarters and you hope that me vouching for Dean and Dean vouching for you is enough for everyone else to accept you too." Sam cocked his head, "I'm sure you'll want to talk to your husband, so I'll send him in for some privacy, but I have one more question first."

He took Elizabeth's silence as a cue to go on. "You guys are smart; obviously you've managed to hide from both governments for going on 4 years. I gotta ask, what changed? Why did we find you in a hospital? You weren't even injured that badly, I've seen Dean fix worse."

Elizabeth instinctively crossed her arms over her stomach when she looked back at him. "I got pregnant. That's what changed."

The shock was evident on Sam's face. He nodded dumbfounded and muttered something about, "Right, I'll go get Dean."


	3. The Boys are Back in Town

_AN: views are nice, I'm glad that people are interested in this universe! Reviews are better! Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, what do you think should happen next? I love hearing what people think! (Also my boyfriend is getting tired of being my guinea pig for these chapters lol so other input would be great!)_

He was wrong, she didn't want to talk to Dean, in fact she didn't even want to see him right now, the thought of him touching her made her sick, and the fact that the thought of her husband touching her made her feel sick, made her feel sicker. She fought back the urge to vomit and tried to calm herself breathing deeply. She stood and paced back and forth a few times, something caught her eye on the floor. The knife Dean had dropped.

Elizabeth snatched it up and flipped the blade open, ignoring the fact that it was her own semi dry blood on it, and felt better now that she had a weapon. The door creaked open and she found herself almost face to face with Dean. His eyes were red, like he'd been crying, and the expression on his face looked like he could start up again at any time. He moved in to touch her and she backed up a step holding the knife out defensively.

"Don't touch me." She warned.

"I'm sorry." Dean replied, hands out like he was calming a skittish animal. "God, Elizabeth I'm so sorry."

"Sit." She pointed to the table with the knife blade and when he obeyed, she began to actually feel in control of the situation and breathe somewhat normally. "What do you want?"

"I just, I don't know. I need you to know that I didn't have a choice before. They said they'd kill you if I didn't prove I was loyal," Dean spoke to the ground, refusing to look at her. He seemed sincere enough, but she'd seen him charm and lie his way through countless missions. Having to assess Dean as an enemy was unsettling, but she knew him better than almost anyone else, so it wasn't difficult.

"Why should I believe you over Sam?" Elizabeth asked edging forward and crossing her arms.

"Because I'm your husband?" Dean tried. "I know, we've both lied and we've both said some truth and you don't know up from down. But you have to believe me now, they're recording everything out there if you want to watch the tapes for proof," His words had a double meaning there, yes it was half to ease her mind and also half to say 'watch what you say, we aren't alone.'

"Maybe I will." Elizabeth agreed. She flipped the knife closed and stowed it in her pocket. Taking a deep breath she closed the distance between them and stood near enough to Dean that when she reached out the tips of her fingers ran along his cheek. When the touch didn't cause her to burst into flame or break down in hysterics she moved closer still and leaned down to touch her forehead to his and took a few breaths.

"You're alright aren't you?" Dean breathed against her skin. He barely moved his mouth and spoke in nothing more than a whisper. "I tried to do as little as I could."

"It's not the physical cuts that will scar Dean," She breathed back. "I'm ok though."

The sound of the door had them both snap up and look at Sam as he entered. "All better?" He asked briskly.

"Don't they teach you to knock up here?" Dean asked standing. All three of them noticed when Elizabeth stepped back from him again.

"It's not like I didn't already know what you were doing." Sam shrugged and nodded at the small camera in the far corner. "Let's go." He waited for them both to exit the room before he followed.

"And where exactly are we going?" Dean asked.

"Somewhere you'll remember." Sam actually smiled.

They were marched back into the same truck that had brought them here, and were still surrounded by soldiers at all times, but the handcuffs stayed off this time. A small consolation prize.

The ride wasn't too long, but they must have been going farther north because it was getting colder in the truck. Sam noticed Elizabeth shivering, her jacket had gotten pretty cut up from his little test, and produced a blanket from under his bench. He passed it to her with a small nod.

A while later they stopped in front of a tall imposing looking fence. The gate slid open admitting the truck and then slammed closed behind them. Elizabeth noticed a change in Dean's breathing as they filed out of the truck. She still had the blanket wrapped around her shoulders and looked in wonder at the compound.

The entire place was surrounded by the same fence that stretched on for almost as far as she could see in the terrain. The buildings, all made of what looked like a dark stone, were connected by covered pathways that she assumed made it easier to keep the walks clear of snow. It hadn't snowed in a few weeks but the temperatures had been cold enough to keep the piles from melting. Now they had turned a sickly greyish brown color and just made the place on the whole depressing looking.

"Is this a prison?" She asked softly to Dean as they stopped by the front building.

"Not exactly." Dean replied looking apprehensively out at the compound.

"Home sweet home right Dean?" Sam smirked, gesturing to the depressing compound.

Elizabeth looked at Dean for clarification. "This is the Academy. Sam and I grew up here after our parents died."

"You lived here?" Her head swiveled around looking at all angles. " _Children live here_?"

"It's different here, best just accept it." Dean murmured shaking his head sadly. "I was only 14 and Sam was 10, I couldn't take care of us by myself."

The sound of shoes crunching on the wet gravel made them look up. The soldiers behind them snapped to attention. Elizabeth saw a shorter man heading towards them, wearing a black suit and black coat, his black hair was perfectly combed and his black shoes polished. Though he was barely taller than her, she could feel the power radiating from him and was on her guard as he approached. Dean seemed to know the man but where the knowledge should have been comforting, it wasn't. He edged forward and over until he was almost shielding her from the approach.

"Well hello Dean, so nice to have the boys back together." He spoke in a posh accent and smiled wickedly.

"Crowley." Dean ground out. He was in front of Elizabeth now so she couldn't see his expression, but every muscle in his body was tense. This wasn't a good sign.

Crowley looked over his shoulder to her, his dark eyes appraising her and she felt very small. "And this must be your little lovebird I've heard so much about." He smiled at her, "Charmed my dear."

No one said anything; Sam stepped closer to the group and nodded to Crowley. Though he towered over the other man, there was a silent nod of power to the dark man.

"So, let's just have it all out in the open shall we? Moose here says that you two flipped sides. Again Dean? All this loyalty switching makes it hard for a man to be trusted. Especially when he comes back with such a lovely thing." Elizabeth fought the urge to gag. "It might make some people wonder if this is all some clever ploy."

"We've tested them, I had Alastair work him over and both have proved they are loyal to the North Sir." Sam assured Crowley. Dark eyes snapped up at him and he fell silent.

"Alastair is a twit. He likes pain. Torture, well torture is all fun and good. But I think we all know there's a point that you'll do anything to make the pain stop." He watched Sam the whole time, and the big man squirmed a bit at his words.

"Yes Sir." Sam agreed submissively.

"Excellent." Crowley clapped his hands together briskly and the soldiers awaited orders. "Then for my own comfort as well as the rest of the Academy, we'll need a little more than Sam's word on this."

Dean backed up until he was almost on top of Elizabeth, "You leave her alone." He snarled.

"Dean, I'm offended." Crowley's eyes widened, "After all we've been through you think I'd hurt her?"

"I know you."

"Dean, stop, if we have to prove ourselves, then let's just do it and it'll be over." Elizabeth put a hand on his shoulder and he spun so fast it threw her off balance and she tumbled backwards. Dean caught her and pulled her back up using the opportunity to whisper, "I love you." She nodded.

"I have nothing to hide." She declared to Crowley who nodded to the soldiers.

"Take her, Sam you are responsible for your brother until I'm done with his lady friend."

The soldiers nearest Elizabeth made to grab her arms but she pulled away before they could. "I think I can manage to walk thanks." She glared at them all, indistinguishable in their helmets.

"My office then," Crowley directed and they marched off, leaving Sam and Dean alone.

"She'll be fine; as long as she's telling the truth he won't hurt her." Sam assured Dean who couldn't decide if he wanted to break down in a mess or go beat the tar out of something.

Elizabeth was surprised to be led to a relatively nice office and seated in front of a stack of paper and a pen.

"Want me to write an essay?" She asked as Crowley sat down at his desk across the room.

"You're cute, so you probably get away with being a smart ass. Here, we don't like that so much. So yes sweetheart, I want you to write me a detailed account of everything that's happened since the day you showed up at training. I want names, places, dates, all of it. And then we'll see if you're telling the truth." Crowley smiled and gestured to a pot of tea sitting on a heating pad on the corner of his desk, "Thirsty?" He poured himself a cup. Elizabeth shook her head and began writing.

"Elizabeth said you came here to find Olivia and Mandy." Sam said, trying to distract Dean from his thoughts.

"Yeah, she wanted to tear across the country to get them back after you left with them. But was told it wasn't worth the loss of manpower." He smirked, "Well you can imagine how well that went over."

"She's kinda like mom huh?" Sam asked cautiously.

"Yeah I guess so." Dean agreed.

"You're lucky Dean."

"Really?" Dean let out a mirthful chuckle. "Am I really that lucky Sam?"

"More than most people I think." He nervously scratched the back of his neck and shook out his hair. It had grown more in the last 4 years, but there was something else different about Sam now too. "I know Crowley, he's a dick but he won't injure a potential asset until he's sure he can't get any use out of her. She'll probably be in there for a while and we can't do anything about it."

"Trying to make me feel better Sam? Because you're kind of sucking at it." Dean replied.

"Well I was going to say that Olivia would probably like to see you. She's been worried about you two." Sam shrugged.

"And the baby?" Dean asked.

"Mandy too. She's not a baby anymore." Sam smiled looking a lot more vulnerable than Dean had ever seen him. That was it. He seemed happy now.

Dean cast another glance down the hall where Elizabeth had been taken, but shook his head and followed Sam off another corridor.

"I need more paper." Elizabeth said looking up and flexing her cramped hand.

Crowley glanced over at her from the file he'd been reading. "My, aren't we just the busy little bee." He dug in a drawer and pulled out another stack, dropping it on the table next to her. "Keep up the good work sweetheart." He whispered, leaving her with a shiver in her spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

"I should warn you that Olivia's kind of, we don't really, well it kind of varies day to day." Sam paused outside the door to his family quarters.

"Ok," Dean said a bit mystified.

Sam opened the door with a click and a tiny speeding head of curly brown hair hurtled at him.

"Daddy!" The little girl jumped when she got close enough and Sam caught her deftly.

"Hi baby girl." Sam kissed the crown of her head and pulled her up to his hip. "Where's Mama?"

"She's in the bedroom, we were practicing my letters." Mandy chatted away and then noticed Dean. Immediately she fell silent and clutched at Sam. "Daddy, who's that?" She whispered.

Sam walked back over to Dean and smoothed back Mandy's hair, "This is Dean, he's my brother."

Mandy looked up at him and then hid her face in Sam's shoulder again, "he looks scary."

Dean felt his face break into a grin, "I promise I'm not scary Mandy," He looked down at himself and remembered he was dirty and bloody. "I just need a shower." He admitted.

It was amazing, the difference between this Sam and the one he'd met earlier in the hospital. Not hard to believe though, the same switch happened to him when he was working. Dean didn't completely trust his little brother, but it was still nice to see him after so long.

"If you want you can use our shower," Sam offered, "I can find some clothes that would probably fit you."

Dean nodded in thanks.

"Through the bedroom there." He pointed, "I'll figure out clothes."

Dean stepped through the warm entry way into a large open room with a row of doors along one wall. The far one was open and Dean could see a dresser and part of a large bed. That would be the bedroom then. He walked up to the doorframe and knocked on the trim, remembering what Mandy said about Olivia being in here.

She materialized from the corner clutching an alphabet book to her chest. When she saw Dean it was clear that she was shocked, enough that she took a step back and stumbled on the carpeting.

"Dean?" She blinked hard a few times; sure that she was imagining him. "Oh my god, you're real. You're here, how the heck are you really here?"

"I have a stubborn wife who wouldn't stop looking for you." Dean smiled easily.

Olivia's eyes went wide, "Elizabeth's here too?" She looked behind him like her friend might be hiding waiting to surprise her.

"Yes, she's well it's kind of a long story, but would you mind if I showered first? It's been a rough day." Dean sighed.

Olivia looked him over and hurried to the closet, pulled out a clean fluffy towel and handed it to him. She pointed to another door, "In there." Dean nodded his thanks and crossed in front of her.

Olivia let out a gasp when she saw his back, "Oh, Dean what happened?"

He'd forgotten about the lash marks after everything else that happened, but now the dull pain ratcheted up a few notches as he focused on them again, "I'll explain everything alright, I just need to wash up." The faint red smudges on his hands had long since dried but it didn't matter, he still felt like he was bathing in blood.

"Hold on, some of those look pretty bad," She studied his shoulders and let out a long breath. "After you shower I can put something on them, just be careful with the water temperature."

Dean nodded wearily and trooped into the bathroom.


	4. Spirit in the Sky

_AN: Daisy, I forget to remind you to breathe last chapter….I hope you remembered on your own ;) Sorry this chapter is late today, I didn't get it up before school… also, disclaimer about Sam and Olivia, I never claimed they were the model of a healthy functional relationship…..and they still aren't, as you'll see in this chapter._

Elizabeth finished the last sentence and turned the sheet of paper over onto the stack she'd made. She flipped the whole thing again so the first page was on top and looked expectantly at Crowley.

After a few seconds he glanced up and raised his eyebrows. "Finished love?"

A curt nod signaled the affirmative.

"Wonderful." He stood and circled the desk taking the stack of papers from the table and leafing through them. "Need anything for that hand?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "sure, a few aspirin and an icepack would be great."

Crowley chuckled at her choice of words, "I think you'll need that a bit more after the next part dear." All his little pet names were beginning to get under her skin.

"Well then let's just get on with it. The sooner you believe me the sooner I can shower." She shrugged.

"Of course." A snap of his fingers had two soldiers appear in the doorway ready to escort her somewhere. "See you in a bit then."

The nearer one took her arm and she snatched it away jabbing her elbow back into his chest. "I can walk on my own thanks."

The second soldier took a firm hold of her upper arm and refused to let go until his partner had recovered enough to grip her other side. Neither of them spoke and they largely ignored her struggles as she was half led half dragged down a long stone hall. Eventually they arrived at a door and she was thrust inside the room, the door closing behind her. A few seconds later lights clicked on over her head, blindingly bright. She clamped her eyes shut after trying and failing to squint through the light. Then the sound started up, a piercing shriek like a cross between an alarm and heavy machinery.

Visual and auditory overload had her eyes clamped shut and hands covering her ears for any escape from the constant jarring noise. Even the inside of her eyelids light up a bright red and she curled up on her side trying to block out all the incoming information with images of Dean, the sound of his voice.

After a while the effort of keeping the thoughts flowing became too great and she slid down against a wall with her head pressed into her knees. The position helped with the lights, but now she could feel the vibrations in the walls of the sounds.

She had no way of knowing how long she was in the room alone when the lights shut off and the sounds cut out abruptly.

The shower was heaven sent as far as Dean was concerned. Being a rogue agent afforded little time to enjoy the human comforts of steamy water and soap that didn't smell like a drugstore.

He stood with his chest in the stream of water, trying to convince himself that turning and letting the spray hit his back couldn't be too awful could it? He'd had worse injuries that he'd either patched up himself or had Elizabeth take care of, but with the marks so fresh he was having second thoughts about it. The mind games he was playing with himself weren't helping either. Finally he spun and steeled himself for the white hot flash of pain that inevitably came before turning around again quickly. Not that it helped much. Now that he'd aggravated the raw skin it was acting up again and he couldn't even reach it to try and do something about the pain.

Suddenly the shower lost its appeal and he quickly finished rinsing suds off himself and shut off the spray fumbling for the towel Olivia had given him. Sitting just inside the door was a neatly folded pile of clothes. He pulled on the pants and hesitated at the shirt, toweling off his hair instead.

Dean opened the door to the bathroom still holding the shirt and his wet towel to find Olivia with a first aid kit, and Mandy perched on the loveseat at the end of the bed. Sam was nowhere to be found.

"Just throw that anywhere, I'll take care of it." Olivia indicated the towel; Dean awkwardly draped it over a chair on his way towards her.

Mandy watched with rapt attention as he approached, and he shot her a smile trying to help her relax.

Her eyebrows pinched in a way that painfully reminded him of Sam as a child and he focused on Olivia instead. She seemed fine, physically anyway. Dean knew most of the scars Sam had caused her weren't physical anyway.

"Come here, I need to get a look at those welts." Olivia beckoned. He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned his forearms on his knees. "God, Dean, who did this to you? It wasn't S-"

"Alastair," Dean cut her off for Mandy's sake. The kid obviously thought Sam was an angel, why confuse her now.

"Alastair," Olivia repeated, face contorted in a grimace, "I can't stand that man, I don't want him in the same country as me."

She pulled out a packet of iodine and squeezed some on a gauze pad. Dean flinched a little and hissed as she dabbed at the worst of the welts first. It wasn't that the iodine hurt on its own, just anything touching the raw skin felt like a while hot flame right now.

"It'll be easier if you lie down," Olivia suggested and Dean complied shifting to lie on his stomach with his arms pillowed under his head. The new position brought him almost nose to nose with Mandy. The child's face had shifted from apprehension to concern.

"Somebody hurt you?" She asked cocking her head a bit and letting her brown curls fall.

"Yeah baby, somebody hurt him pretty bad, but we can fix him right?" Olivia answered for him.

She moved on to a fresh welt and Dean pressed his face into the sheets to muffle a curse, pretty sure that profanity wouldn't win him points with his nurse.

"Mommy fixes Daddy sometimes too when he gets hurt." Mandy said in a serious voice, she held up a finger with a band-aid wrapped around it, "And three days ago I got a cut on my finger and she fixed it."

"Sounds like I'm in good hands," Dean managed a smile for her sake.

Mandy reached out tentatively and patted his hand. "You have green eyes like me." She said after studying him a bit.

"Yours are prettier," Dean replied and Mandy giggled. The sound almost made up for the fact that her mother was trying to kill him with a gauze pad.

Elizabeth was dragged back to the office and made to sit in a chair. Everything was blurry and sounded like she was underwater. She stumbled forward into the chair thankful that she didn't have to stay upright, her balance wasn't too good right now either. A few feet in front of her Crowley took another chair holding the stack of papers she'd written before.

"Alright love?" He asked, the words bounced in her brain for a while before she could attach meaning to them, but once it clicked she nodded. "Not much experience with sensory overload I take it?" It wasn't something the government of the South approved of for interrogation purposes, but the rules were different here.

"So right to business then," He picked up the first sheet, "Tell me about the day you arrived at recruit training."

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut and tried to recall what exactly she'd written. It was all the truth, but even her own memories were hazy right now.

"I was the only girl on the bus, when we pulled up all the others were given squad assignments and the sergeant was about to walk away,"

"And his name was?" Crowley interrupted.

"Cam-Campbell," Elizabeth stuttered.

"Go on."

"I asked for my assignment, he didn't like women in the army, another officer came then and told him off, she led me to the women's barracks and I changed and went to meet my squad and our leader."

"And who exactly was your leader?" Crowley asked following the story on the sheet, he glanced up over the page every now and then.

"I knew him as Commander Harvelle, his real name is Dean Winchester."

"The very same Dean Winchester you're currently married to?" Crowley asked, Elizabeth nodded. "Scandalous."

He flipped a few pages ahead. "Now this is interesting, let's talk about the squad leader position."

What felt like hours later, Olivia finished cleaning all the welts and cuts on Dean's back and covered each in a clean bandage strip. Once the injuries were covered the constant pain of air moving and dust particles settling on them scaled back to manageable.

"Why don't you sleep for a while?" Olivia suggested, helping him roll up to a seated position and leading the way to what appeared to be a guest room in the lavish apartment.

"You're really roughing it up here huh?" Dean commented with a smirk and Olivia swatted at his arm with an eye roll. It was almost like they were just meeting at the office again, instead of being held prisoner in hostile territory.

"I'll get you something for pain and you can just sleep this all off." Olivia nodded towards the bed and Dean padded over to it lowering himself softly onto the covers on his stomach. Better not to risk agitating the welts again he thought.

Olivia appeared with a few little pills and a cup of water and not a few minutes after that did Dean finally surrender to sleep.

Olivia sat in the main room staring at the closed door of Dean's room, thinking. He was here, Elizabeth was here, somewhere. She was so out of the loop now she had no idea what was going on in the war except what Sam told her, and who knew if he was even telling her the truth.

The front door opened and closed again and she heard Sam calling Mandy's name. It must be time for her lessons. With a quick "Bye, Mommy," she flitted past and left with her teacher.

A few seconds more and Sam's boots clomped across the entryway before he came into view in the doorway.

"Hey," He greeted with a sigh. That was different.

"Sam, what's going on? Why is Dean here?" Olivia asked standing, but not moving any closer to him.

He kicked off the boots, dirty and wet from the snow, before crossing the carpeted part of the apartment.

"I'll tell you everything, but first can we just relax a little, this day isn't going very well," He promised.

Curiosity got the best of her and she followed him into the bedroom where he collapsed on top of the covers with a long arm splayed over his eyes. Olivia sat lightly on the edge of the bed and Sam let out a groan of pent up frustration.

"Are you alright? I saw Dean's back and he said that Alastair-"

"Don't worry Liv, he didn't do anything to me," Sam assured her rolling onto his side and poofing a pillow under his cheek. "It's just been rough. I know we're kinda rocky too, but could I just, maybe hold you? Or something?" He smiled a sad smile and his dimples popped out, he looked so sweet like that, it was hard to believe half the time he came home covered in someone else's blood.

"Yeah, sure," She climbed up next to him and let him pull her close, nuzzling against her hair.

"Liv, I'm an awful person." Sam mumbled into her hair.

"Sammy," Olivia sighed out, while she couldn't technically argue with the statement, she had at least seen enough of his humanity since Mandy was born to know that he could change, given the chance. "Tell me what happened."

Sam held his arms around her as he spoke over her head, recounting the events of finding Elizabeth and his brother all the way up to now. Olivia was quiet as he explained, gasping at the mention of having Dean torture his wife.

"The only reason they let themselves get captured at all is because she's pregnant." Sam finished with a huff.

"Oh God," Olivia whispered. Dean hadn't said a word about a baby, but he must have known choosing a side would be their best chance.

"Why would they come here rather than go back to the South?" She wondered aloud.

"They're rogue agents Liv, the South would arrest them for desertion and probably treason too. It was here or nowhere." Sam explained.

She was quiet then, and when Sam's hand crept to her hip she didn't shrug it off. He started rubbing slow circles on her hip bone and his breathing relaxed audibly.

"Liv, you know I won't hurt you right?" Sam asked quietly shaking the hair out of his face.

"Yeah, I know that." Olivia responded uncoiling her arms from where they'd been sandwiched between their bodies.

"Sometimes you flinch away when I try and touch you though," He continued.

"Old memories die hard Sam, you know that too." Olivia sighed. One of her hands slid up to his shirt collar fingering the buttons on the front casually.

"But now you're not doing that," He pointed out, hoping she wouldn't freeze.

"I have some new memories too Sam. And they're much better than the old ones." She managed to slip one of the buttons open before he rolled them so he was on top.

"Never hurt you," He murmured nuzzling down her jaw ticking her ear on the way. "Never again Liv," it had become like a mantra in the time since she'd arrived, it worked for them when other words failed.

"I know, I know it Sam," She returned with the standard reply they'd developed together.

"Don't want to," Sam continued pausing to pay special attention to the sensitive skin on her neck.

"Don't worry Sammy, you won't" She cooed, working the rest of his shirt open more shakily now. She kept murmuring praise, reassurance as he suckled on her neck and ran his huge hands up and down the sides of her body.

"Don't want to hurt you Liv," Sam mumbled, and Olivia reached around him with one arm tangling her hand in his hair and pulling him harder against her neck.

"Never Sammy, you would never," She felt so small underneath him, but his constant need to be reassured gave her a power now. The dichotomy was interesting, being physically powerless, but mentally in control had its charm. At the first gentle scrape of teeth she let out a soft whimper and Sam pulled back, unsure. Though they'd been through the exchange before, he needed her to say it was alright every time.

"You won't hurt me Sam, I promise," She assured him, planting a kiss on his forehead.

Another bolder press of his mouth on her skin made her breath catch, but she kept up the litany of "I know you won't hurt me Sam. Don't worry its ok." He grew bolder at her assurances and bit down softly on the juncture of her shoulder and neck.

"Sammy," Olivia cooed into his hair, as his hands slipped under her shirt, "That's it Sam, you won't hurt me will you, only good feelings now right?"

He nodded against her and pushed the silky fabric of her blouse up pausing to pull it over her head when it got in the way of his mouth. He took the opportunity to shrug out of his shirt as well and leaned on one arm so he could free up a hand to splay over her stomach as he returned to her neck, now red and slightly inflamed from biting. He slid the arm he was laying on under her head and ran his fingers through her hair.

"So nice Sam, it's alright," She tugged a bit with the hand she had wrapped up in his hair and he groaned, "See, it's good, you won't hurt me,"

"Never again," Sam sighed as he slipped lower onto the newly exposed skin. He ran his free hand over the scar on her arm and trailed kisses down her chest, "Never hurt you again Liv. I won't."

"I know Sammy, I know." She tugged at his hair again, trying to get him to do the same, and at the first pull she let out a small moan, "See," She was panting a little now with all of the sensations, "Not hurting me right?" She asked between little kisses down his chest and stomach. "Make me feel good Sam, so good at it,"

Her words seemed to flip a light on inside Sam, everything he'd been doing increased tenfold, the kisses all came with bites now, and the hand in her hair didn't stop pulling until she groaned out loud. He nudged a knee between her legs and grinned as she flailed under him.

"Feels good?" He hissed into her ear, biting at the lobe. She got out a shaky "uh huh" before his hand dipped under the fabric of her bra and she arched into the touch.

He stopped for a minute to undo his belt and rid himself of the rest of his clothes, and then helped her with hers.

Poised above her he said again "I won't ever hurt you Liv." He looked into her eyes and she nodded replying with, "I know,"

What it really meant was 'I love you.'

She knew he felt it, he just didn't know how to say it.


	5. Renegade

_AN: merp, life got in the way of my posting schedule. Don't ever let anyone say that teaching preschool is easy! Also, I'm not above begging for reviews, they are sooooooooo helpful and motivating!_

Her head was pounding. It was cold in the office, but she felt clammy, covered in sweat. Crowley sipped from his mug of tea and waited for her response.

"I, I don't- What did you ask?" Elizabeth couldn't remember.

"You mentioned staying in a town near the Southern border for almost a month. Why stay so long? Everything else says you were moving almost constantly after you left the South." Crowley placed the cup back on its matching saucer.

"We were supposed to stay a week and then move on, but we got side tracked." Elizabeth began, rubbing her temples to try and alleviate the pounding behind her skull.

She and Dean were in a town that was large enough no one questioned two dirty travelers. By this time they'd established a cover story, Elizabeth and Dean Smith were married and refugees from the border where their town had been attacked by the South. People took pity on refugees and it usually afforded them more food and a slightly nicer motel room to stay at.

Elizabeth had been repacking their bags with freshly cleaned clothes when Dean stormed into the room, slammed the door behind him and pulled the window shade.

"What's wrong?" Elizabeth was by his side in a second, peering anxiously through the blinds.

"Southern troops are here." Dean explained, "I don't know why. There's nothing useful in this town. We should go." He urged and they both shoved the clothes into their bags, never mind if they wrinkled now. After glancing out the window again Dean opened the door and they hurried towards the parking lot. The car they'd arrived in was parked a few rows over, but they'd gotten used to changing cars frequently. Dean taught Elizabeth how to hotwire an engine and after a few false starts they'd turned to him keeping watch while she jimmied the door and got the car going.

"All clear, go ahead," Dean murmured keeping an eye out for anyone. The car they'd chosen was an old faded red Buick, and Elizabeth crouched fiddling with the lock. It took some doing, but she got inside and pulled the wiring out of the steering column. A tap on the hood alerted her that they had company, she glanced up at Dean through the windshield and a subtle motion of his hand told her to stop and come out. As soon as she straightened up Dean threw his arm around her shoulder and planted a jovial kiss on her cheek, "follow my lead" He muttered pulling away.

Elizabeth saw a pair of armed soldiers headed towards them and plastered the same smile Dean wore on her own face. From the size difference it was probably a man and a woman. As they got closer Elizabeth had a sinking feeling as she recognized the face of the woman.

Madison had grown up a lot in almost three years, and Elizabeth prayed that she looked different enough, or that the time had been long enough not to be recognized by her old friend. Hastily Elizabeth shook her hair into her face, and pulled the sunglasses she used to sleep in the car off her shirt and shoved them on her face as well. Madison hadn't known Dean well at all, probably just admired his ass from across the yard like all the others.

"Car troubles?" The male soldier spoke as they stopped at a conversational distance.

"Yeah, you know I must have left my keys at the bar last night." Dean lied, still with the smile. "Got into a mess of trouble right honey?"

"Yeah, he slept on the couch," Elizabeth added with a laugh, she consciously made her voice higher and more bubbly than normal adding another thin layer to her disguise.

Madison looked at her and she leaned her head into Dean's shoulder trying to obscure her face. She'd never been particularly able to tan, and right now she was glad that her naturally pale skin would further the thought of being from the North where it was cold much of the time.

"We could help if you like?" Madison said with a friendly smile.

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it, I'm sure you have more important things to attend to." Dean stalled.

"Oh come on, just because we're from different sides doesn't mean we'd leave you stranded." The man added, he flipped his gun around so it was hanging off the strap on his back and started forward to look at the car.

Elizabeth hadn't looked around the interior much earlier, but now she saw a picture clipped to the driver's visor, a man, woman and a little girl, about 10 years old.

The male soldier's gaze rested on it as well. "Cute kid," He nodded.

Dean came around to the door now as well and said, "Yeah, that's my little cousin,"

"What's her name?" The soldier asked.

"Lucy" Dean replied at the same time Elizabeth said "Katie"

The man looked at them for a second and Dean tried to cover the mistake with another charming smile. "Remember honey, Lucy's the daughter and Aunt Katie is her mother, she's only met them at holidays."

Madison nodded slowly. "You know we really should do this by the book don't you think Aaron?" She asked, "Just a formality really but of you could both show us your IDs we'll get this car moving for you."

"Sure, sure just gotta dig them out of the bag." Dean unshouldered his pack and crouched down to paw through it, a second before his hand came back out clutching his old silver handgun, Elizabeth had pulled hers out of the back of her belt.

"Run," Dean barked and took off across the lot shooting wide on purpose to cover Elizabeth's escape. She dropped the pack on her own back and ran towards him. While Dean's cover fire lasted long enough for them to be able to sprint around the building and temporarily lose their pursuers, but it left him at a disadvantage being low on ammo.

"Trade," Elizabeth held out her own gun and a hand for his.

"What? No you need that," Dean argued.

"We both know you're a better shot then me, we stand the best chance if you don't run out of bullets." Elizabeth said and grabbed the gun out of his hand shoving her own in its place.

"We won't get out of the city, there's too many soldiers around, but if we can just lose these two we should be alright to wait it out until they move on." Dean reasoned.

"That was Madison." Elizabeth said with a sigh.

"Who?"

"We went through boot camp together." Elizabeth explained. "She was in a different squad and we kinda lost touch after the placement exam, but I really liked her."

"Did she recognize you?" Dean asked. He thought back to the woman who had shown up and been assigned his squad a few years back. Aside from the attitude and general build, she was almost nothing like the woman he now called his wife.

"I don't think so, but I can't be sure." Elizabeth admitted.

"You realize that she's going to be shooting at you either way right?" Dean asked, wishing he didn't have to put her in this position.

"I know, don't worry Dean, I'm not going to hesitate. She wouldn't, and would probably slap me if I did." Elizabeth assured him. The sound of quick footsteps approaching had them both crouching behind a dumpster and some old cardboard boxes. Silently they watched as Madison and Aaron made their way down the alley systematically checking every possible hiding spot.

"We have to move." Elizabeth breathed into Dean's ear, barely making a sound. He nodded in response and signaled that at the count of three they'd make a break for it. Watching the pair carefully he held up a hand and began the countdown. Once he deemed them engaged enough for there to be a second of surprise he threw down his hand and both he and Elizabeth sprung out and fired a few shots over their shoulders as they ran farther down the alley towards the street at the other end.

"Turn left!" Dean shouted and without a second thought she did at the end of the alley, only to have Dean turn right. "Go, we'll meet up after!" He shouted and sped off. It was the smart thing to do, the rational part of Elizabeth's brain told her. She knew that Dean could take care of himself, and it would be easier for them to take on one enemy than to worry about two. But still she was worried. She didn't know Aaron, but if he was on Madison's level he was a force to be reckoned with. She didn't know what would happen when the enemy pair realized they'd split, but she just kept running until a ricocheting bullet off the side of a building made her realize her adversary had caught up again. Diving around a corner she rolled once on the pavement, ignoring the small cuts that opened up on her hands from the impact.

"If you come out now this can all be over." The voice that called out was female.

Madison.

A friend.

No.

Not today.

"I don't know why you felt the need to pull guns on us but I promise I don't want to hurt you."

In her mind Elizabeth wrestled with what to do. She hadn't been lying to Dean earlier, if it came down to it, she'd use her training and fire on Madison. But now she wondered if it was possible for both of them to just walk away and pretend this had never happened.

Dean's gun was slightly bigger than the one she was familiar with, but it still slid comfortably into the back waist of her jeans. After making sure her shirt and jacket covered it fully, she called out, "Alright, I'm coming out, don't shoot."

First around the corner were her hands to show she was unarmed, and also test of Madison was telling the truth about not wanting to hurt her. When nothing happened she edged herself around the building and slowly walked into the back street with her hands up in front of her. She'd lost her sunglasses in the struggle earlier and took a deep breath as she looked up into her old friend's face.

It took a moment, but recognition flashed across the other woman's face. "Elizabeth?" She asked, still holding her weapon out but she'd lost all intention of using it.

"Hi." Elizabeth let out a huff of breath.

"How are you, what are." Madison seemed incapable of forming a full question.

"Look, I don't want to have to hurt you, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to hurt me. Madison, just walk away. Please, pretend you lost me and I'll just slip back into the shadows." Elizabeth spoke quickly in case one or both of the men were on their way.

"I can't just let you go." Madison replied sadly.

"Yes you can, I'm asking as a friend." Elizabeth pleaded.

"We're not friends." Madison replied stiffly. "You deserted, went rogue or something. You and Harvelle are wanted back home you know." Something clicked in her head. "That was him you were with wasn't it?"

Elizabeth nodded. "None of that changes what happened at boot camp. We were friends back then, I know we lost touch but I need you to let me go."

"Why?" Madison asked shortly.

"I, It's complicated. There was something I needed to do and the army wouldn't let me." Elizabeth tried to edge sideways towards the road, but Madison raised her gun again and barked,

"Don't move! What's so important that you had to betray your country?"

"Someone I consider family needed help. I couldn't just leave her could I?" Elizabeth reasoned.

"There's ways to work in the system Elizabeth. You broke the rules, and now you have to pay for that." Madison sighed. "I'm sorry."

"So rules are more important to you than family?"

"Loyalty is more important to me than anything." Madison corrected.

"Me too. We're just loyal to two different things." Elizabeth said and reached for her gun, wrenching it out of her waistband and firing a shot in one smooth motion. Madison fired too, as soon as she saw the sudden move, and a burning pain exploded in the lower right part of Elizabeth's abdomen as she saw Madison drop to the ground with a spreading bloodstain on her chest.

Pressing a hand to her own injury, Elizabeth lowered herself so she was sitting on the ground leaning against the cinderblock wall of the building behind her. She was losing blood fast and her vision swam before her. She weakly called out Dean's name, wondering if he was nearby enough to hear it. For a few seconds everything was quiet. Madison wasn't moving and Elizabeth wondered if she was dead. Then, pounding footsteps.

Keeping the gun tight in her hand she pointed it in the direction of the noise, in case anyone but Dean had come to investigate the commotion. By some miracle the slightly sweaty, out of breath, disheveled form of her husband came into view and he was at her side in less than a second.

"Oh my god, Beth, you're bleeding."

"Yeah," she grinned, even as the world pitched sideways and her stomach rolled with it. "That's what happens when you get shot." She said and then mercifully the world went black and the pain went away.

"I woke up in a hospital later. Dean had killed the other soldier and when we got to the hospital it was easy to say Southern soldiers had attacked us and I was hurt." Elizabeth wrung her hands together. "I was there for most of that month healing." She explained.

"Why didn't you write at all into the file?" Crowley asked.

"I've never said what really happened in that street, not even to Dean." Elizabeth admitted. "He'd be mad and there wasn't any reason to stir it up."

"So why tell me now? Why not just say you were shot and leave it at that?"

"Because you are testing me for loyalty. My answer is the same now as it was then. I'm loyal to my family above everything else. Dean is my family now and he's loyal to your side." Elizabeth answered.

Crowley didn't say anything, just flipped another page from the stack in front of him, looking for his next question. After a few seconds though he looked up at her thoughtfully. "I think that's all for now love," He snapped his fingers again and the two guards reappeared.

"Back to your room then." He waved his fingers off towards the door. She was too tired to struggle against the guards as they led her back to the too bright too loud room and closed the door.


	6. Take It Easy

_AN: So I haven't really been sticking to my posting schedule, but I think I have a valid excuse, I'm in my last semester of a master's program, student teaching full time, and applying to a doctorate program…..so really, I'm proud to be posting at all! Also review please! I ain't too proud to beg!_

They rarely had time to themselves anymore, what with Sam being too busy and Mandy always being underfoot. And usually when they were alone, it was one of the days where Sam was angry and Olivia was skittish.

Being cradled in the crook of Sam's arm with one of her own draped across his chest felt nice.

Olivia was sill buzzing from the fun earlier, and right now all she wanted was to forget about wars, and prisoners, and torture, and just be a normal wife for a few minutes. Just be able to snuggle with her husband.

It wouldn't last though; inevitably something would ruin the moment and today was no exception. Though today it was her that brought them back to the real world.

"Where exactly is Elizabeth right now?" She wondered out loud.

"Crowley's questioning her." Sam replied reluctantly, he knew it would set her off.

As he predicted she jerked up, "She's with him? Alone? Are you crazy or just stupid!"

"Liv, believe me, this is the best way for everything to go smoothly. We can't do anything about it now. He won't hurt her."

"Not physically." Olivia clarified. "We both know those scars fade faster anyway."

Sam sighed and pulled her back down into the warm blankets. "I know, it's not like we had a choice in this. It was the easiest way for everyone to make it, you understand that right?"

Olivia nodded snuggling a bit closer. "I'm just worried about the stress it'll cause, with the baby and all." She mumbled. Sam brushed her hair back and nodded understanding. For a few minutes they just relaxed, but Olivia's mind kept drifting back to the fact that Elizabeth was pregnant. It had to have been an accident, just like with Mandy. But Mandy wasn't an accident anymore; she was loved, truly loved by both parents. Just remembering the difference in Sam once he realized how much he cared about his daughter was enough for her to roll over suddenly so she was facing Sam.

"Something wrong?" he asked sleepily, letting his hand roam over her side to her hip.

"Would, you wouldn't be interesting in another baby would you?" She asked in a huff before she could chicken out.

The hand on her hip stopped moving and gripped tighter, Sam took a minute before he answered. "But with Mandy, I almost lost you."

"I know, Sammy, I know but just think about it?" She smiled hopefully. "Not right now, there's too much going on, but maybe at some point?"

He nodded. "Maybe."

Elizabeth had no way of knowing how much time had passed before the doors opened again. This time though instead of the two familiar guards who had hauled her out the past few times, there was just one, and through the haze of her own exhaustion and the blinding lights and deafening sounds that had just stopped, she managed to see a familiar face.

"Benny?" She muttered, as he came closer and helped her to her feet. She noticed he was holding a change of clothes that she presumed were for her, they were the standard issue dark grey and black of the northern army. "So does this mean I get to join the team?" She asked, trying to laugh, but he throat was so dry that it set off a coughing fit.

"Alright, alright now," Benny spoke softly, his southern accent slipping through though usually he had to work to suppress it. "Come on, I'm supposed to take you to Dean and Sam, I think Olivia is there too."

She stumbled a bit as they exited the white room for what she hoped would be the last time, but Benny caught her. "Come on now, you're tougher than this." He admonished.

Elizabeth grabbed his shoulder and used it to haul herself straighter and took a few steps on her own before reaching out for him again. "I just need to sleep for a week, I'll be fine." She said swallowing thickly to try and get some moisture back in her throat.

The walk took longer than it should have because she was moving so slow, and all the halls looked the same. She doubted she'd be able to find her way back to the room if she tried. Finally they came up to a door, not unlike the others they'd passed, but Benny knocked and after some shuffling it was opened by Sam Winchester.

"Sir," Benny greeted respectfully, all traces of an accent gone.

"Thank you Lafitte, you're dismissed." Sam nodded to him and as Benny pulled away Sam moved to take his place, but Elizabeth shied away from his touch, "I'm fine thanks."

Sam raised an eyebrow and let her pass, she kept a hand on the wall until she was inside the entryway. The first thing she noticed was the lineup of shoes. Sam's, then a few pairs of smaller boots she assumed were Olivia's, and then an assortment of pink, purple, and sparkly things that could only be Mandy's.

Mandy her niece, whom she'd never met.

Suddenly everything crept up at once and uncontrollable sobs wracked her body. She hadn't allowed herself to really cry in a long time, probably since she'd found out that Olivia was taken. Sam looked uncomfortable, but the sounds drew Olivia out of the living room and she rushed to her friend's side.

"Oh my god, are you alright. What happened!" She wrapped Elizabeth in a tight hug, then pulled back to look her over. "Did they hurt you?"

Elizabeth shrugged miserably. "I'm alright, I just. It's silly, I saw Mandy's shoes and kind of started blubbering like an idiot."

"It's not silly. You are allowed to cry." Olivia told her.

"Not here, I can't be weak here," Elizabeth argued back.

"Inside these walls, we can be whatever we want. Out there it's all just a show. Everything is scripted for us, but here, we can be real people. And real people cry sometimes." Olivia explained. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up and we'll see if Dean is awake yet."

They crossed in front of Sam, and behind Elizabeth's back Olivia looked pointedly at the door Dean was asleep behind. She wanted him to go get his brother. Alright then.

The door swung open silently and Sam couldn't help but smile at the sight of Dean dead to the world on his stomach, mouth hanging open like it had when they were kids. Sometimes when it stormed Sam would crawl out of his own blankets and nudge Dean over in his bed curling up in the warm spot. That had stopped by the time the war began, but it was still a comforting thought.

Now he reached out and, careful to find a spot that wasn't bandaged, shook Dean's shoulder until the older man groaned and shifted away from the touch.

"Dean, come on, get up."

Dean blinked a few times in the dark and then for a split second seemed to register who was in front of him and shot up, before remembering his back, and that Sam wasn't the enemy anymore.

Gingerly he rolled his shoulders and rubbed his eyes. "How long was I out?"

"About 12 hours, it's morning now, but none of us really slept." Sam explained.

"So why did you wake me up?" Dean grumbled popping his neck.

"Elizabeth's back, Olivia is helping her get cleaned up."

"Cleaned up?" Dean asked worried, "He didn't hurt her did he? You promised me Sam,"

"Chill, Dean. She's fine, just a little dehydrated and exhausted. She'll probably sleep about as long as you did."

Dean stood and followed Sam out into the main living area. He glanced around, "Where's Mandy?"

"Still asleep, its Saturday so she doesn't have lessons today."

"She's what 4?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, almost 5," Sam smiled.

"You gonna send her to the academy?" Dean asked quietly.

"I don't know, Olivia's against it, but how would that look?" Sam sighed. "We have some time before people question it."

Dean nodded, unable to come up with much else to say to Sam at this point. It was strange, they hadn't had a real conversation in years, too many years. It would take time to get used to everything again.

Olivia came out of her bedroom holding a balled up bundle that looked like the clothes Elizabeth had been wearing. They were wrinkled and dirty, but Dean didn't see any blood on them and he counted that a small blessing. She deposited the bundle in the trash and then came over to the boys, holding her arms across her chest.

"Hey," Dean greeted, and Olivia let out a small smile.

"Glad to see you up and moving." She said. Sam moved closer to her and she stiffened a little, until he gently placed a hand on her shoulder and she relaxed into the touch. "She's alright Dean, really. Just dirty and tired like you were."

"Yeah, thanks." Dean shifted nervously on his feet and happened to glance over toward the bedrooms just as Mandy poked her head out. She met his eyes and darted back into the room. Evidently she still wasn't sure about the new presence in her house.

"What's funny?" Sam asked, and Dean realized he had let out a laugh.

"I think your daughter is still afraid of me." He replied.

"It's not you, It's everyone new." Olivia sighed. "It's this place, it makes all the kids skittish." She left to collect Mandy and start on her breakfast.

"So what now?" Sam asked when they were alone.

"What do you mean what now?"

"Well what I've gathered of the situation is that after I brought Olivia back here things went to shit for you two. 4 years on the lamb couldn't have been easy. And now with the baby and everything that's happening, I just can't quite figure you out anymore Dean." Sam explained.

"It's still me Sammy. I'm still the same person I always was." Dean smiled weakly.

"Glad one of us is." Sam responded sourly.

Olivia returned carrying Mandy and stopped in front of the pair gently nodding to Dean, "Say hello sweetie. This is Daddy's big brother and he's going to be here with us for a while."

"Hi," Mandy said looking at the floor.

"Good morning." Dean replied with a grin. "Is your mom making breakfast?" He asked.

Mandy nodded against Olivia's shoulder.

"Any chance I could get some too? I'm starving." She looked up and he winked which caused a giggle even as she hid her face again.

Olivia laughed too. "Just this once I'll be nice." She conceded, "But only because I'm glad to finally have you both back."

"Have us back where?" Everyone turned as Elizabeth exited the bedroom toweling her hair dry. The shower had done her good, she was still exhausted and her head and ribs hurt, but at least she was warm and clean now.

"Beth" Dean said her name in a sigh of relief as he crossed to her.

"Hi De," She replied nestling into his gentle hug.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly, not that he needed to, Olivia had led Sam and Mandy into the kitchen giving them some privacy.

"I'm tired, my ears are ringing and my head hurts, but I think I can muddle through alright." She confirmed.

"Are we alright?" He asked next, pulling back hesitantly.

Elizabeth took a breath and let it out before answering. "I think we'll be fine, I know you did what you had to do. We've made it through some rough patches before right?"

Dean nodded, but still looked troubled. "Come on, I'd like to meet my niece."

"She's a little skittish," Dean warned following his wife into the well-stocked kitchen.

Olivia was mixing up a bowel of eggs to pour into a pan for scrambling. She looked up as they entered. "Hey, feel any better?" She asked Elizabeth.

"Much, is there any way I can help?" Elizabeth replied.

"Oh no, you just rest, especially after yesterday." Olivia insisted.

Elizabeth swayed a bit and nodded. "That's probably a good idea. I shouldn't be playing with hot things right now huh." She took the open seat at the table next to Mandy.

The little girl looked curiously at her, but only as long as she thought Elizabeth didn't notice. As soon as she turned her attention in Mandy's direction, the child was occupied with a string on her place mat.

"Hello there," Elizabeth finally said, looking straight ahead. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mandy jump and look up to her questioningly. "Yes, I meant you silly."

"Who are you?" Mandy asked.

"I was one of your mommy's best friends a long time ago, and I'm married to Dean over there." She indicated Dean leaning against the door frame.

"He said my eyes were prettier than his." Mandy said.

"Well I'd be inclined to agree with him if you'd look at me long enough to let me see them." Elizabeth replied with a giggle.

"Well, ok, but I have to look at yours too." She conceded.

"Sure," Elizabeth bent down so that Mandy could study her eyes for a minute, and when the child finally looked away she was smiling. "They look like the clouds in the sky."

"And yours look like the grass in the morning." Elizabeth replied.

"I like you." Mandy said after a minute.

"Well I'm glad sweetie, now could you do me a favor?" Elizabeth asked.

Mandy gazed at her intently, waiting to hear what such a favor could be.

"Can you try to not be scared of Dean? He's actually really nice, he's kind of like your daddy I think," Elizabeth whispered like it was a secret.

Mandy looked over to Dean for a split second, and then for longer when she realized he'd begun chatting with Olivia and wasn't paying any attention to her.

"He looks sad like Daddy does sometimes. How come they look sad?"

Elizabeth smiled and reached out a hand to run through Mandy's curls. "Because life isn't fair, and sometimes good people get dealt a bad hand."

"What's that mean?"

Elizabeth paused, thinking of how to explain the horrors of this world to a 4 year old. "You'll understand when you're older."

Mandy shrugged, more interested in the plate of eggs that was being brought over by her mother. She carried a second one which she put down in front of Elizabeth. "You eat all of that and then you should probably sleep for a while, last night couldn't have been easy."

Elizabeth nodded and dug heartily into her eggs. They were gone before the second batch was done for Sam and Dean and she brought her plate to the sink before Olivia led her to the same room Dean had crashed in the night before.

"Let me know if you need anything." Olivia said switching off the lights, Elizabeth was already asleep by the time she reached the door.

"What do you think?" Crowley sat in the office chair like a king in his throne. It didn't really matter to him that Dick Roman was the president, he had all the control he needed to get what he wanted from right here.

"I think we still need to test their loyalties sir." Alastair responded with a grin. "Dean was young when he came to us the first time, it was so easy to make him into what we wanted. But maybe he wasn't quite young enough. Teenagers," Alastair spat, "think they run the world. But little Sammy though, he didn't leave. Even the mother of his child couldn't completely turn him away from the cause. We'll just have to work harder to convince them both to see things our way."

"And what do you propose?" Crowley had a glint in his dark eyes.

"The boys are natural interrogators, Deans little love bird, not so much. She's got a backbone in her though. Possibly covert affairs?" Alastair asked, looking for approval.

"We'd have to be sure she wouldn't double cross us." Crowley mused.

"Oh she won't do anything stupid for another 7 months or so." Alastair nodded, quite sure.

"And how do you know that?"

"We picked them up in a hospital near the border. One of the men thought to grab the records in case they were useful. Mrs. Winchester is pregnant." He smiled gleefully.

Crowley took a sip of the scotch he'd been previously ignoring. "Well," He said after a swallow. "How about that."


	7. Free Falling

_AN: life gets in the way of my posting schedule…..womp womp_

Dean knew he should probably let Elizabeth sleep until her body woke itself up. He also knew that he felt about 1000% better when he could see that she was still in one piece. Consequently he spent the majority of the day in the room with her, and when the day faded into night he crawled into the other side of the bed and drifted off.

Down the hall Sam was tucking Mandy into her little bed too.

"Daddy?" She yawned into the pillow.

"Yeah princess?" Sam ran his large hand through her curls, brushing them back from her chubby cheeks.

"Does Mommy have a brother too?"

Sam felt his throat tighten up. "No baby, not anymore."

"Oh, why not?"

"It's, it's hard to explain exactly." He leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I'll tell you when you're older."

"Ok." Mandy curled into a ball under her blankets. "I wish I had a little brother." She mumbled.

"We'll see." He chuckled, and turned out the lights on his way to the door.

"Love you Daddy."

"Love you too Mandy."

Sam left the door open a crack, just like she liked it, and stepped softly next door to his and Olivia's room where she was curled up like a larger version of Mandy.

"She asleep?" Olivia asked as Sam pulled back the covers and wrapped his body around hers.

"On her way. She wants a brother." Sam said a chuckled lightly into Olivia's hair. "I told her we'd work on that."

"So, does that mean that you'd, that maybe we could,-" Olivia trailed off, knowing Sam understood.

"It's not that I don't want more kids, and I know you do too Liv, but after last time."

"The doctors said there's no reason to think it'll happen again Sam, and if it's anything like it was with Mandy all the publicity will ensure we get the best medical care in the country." She groped for his hand and threaded her fingers through his.

"I was so close to losing you again. The first time, it was my fault, I accept that. But after that festival I think I had already started to love you back then, really love you I mean. I'm just so screwed up I didn't know it yet."

"It's not your fault you know; none of this is your fault." Olivia assured him.

After a pause Sam sighed. "I was so scared in the delivery room. I hadn't been that scared since Jo- for a long time."

"We all have ghosts that haunt us Sam. I think yours looks like your little sister because you couldn't save her all those years ago. You were a little kid, you weren't supposed to have to save anyone. You didn't choose this life, and it's not fair that you have to live it. But I think Mandy is one of the good things that came from it. She makes you so happy Sammy. Me too, could we just try for one more?"

Sam didn't answer for a long time, Olivia began to think that her speech hadn't worked when he mumbled, "But not tonight right?"

"No silly," She smiled. "Not tonight."

Elizabeth woke up early the next morning, and after a brief moment of confusion, discovered that she'd slept through one day and into the next. It wasn't yet 6 am on a Monday from what she could register. Dean mumbled in his sleep as she tried to disentangle her limbs from the covers that had somehow gotten wrapped around his as well. Finally wrenching her last leg free she sighed in triumph, before Dean rolled over and rubbed a sleepy eye with the back of his hand. "Hey," He greeted.

"Hi." She replied with a grin, leaning down to kiss him properly. "Go back to sleep, it's too early for you."

"Nah, I didn't do anything but watch you yesterday, and I went to bed early." He sat up and stretched before sagging back against the pillows. "Good thing Sammy has an extra room, I'd hate to be back in the barracks, those old mattresses always poked into my back."

"Well ours weren't so much better, but you wouldn't know that with your officer's apartment and all."

"Shut up, I did my time with the recruits just like you did." Dean smiled. "Wonder if there's any food in the kitchen."

"Come on." Elizabeth led the way out the main living area and after a brief search found a container of oatmeal and some strawberries.

"Now where did they get these? No way they'd grow up here, it's too cold." Elizabeth commented.

"Probably imported, or maybe they've got greenhouses somewhere." Dean shrugged.

By the time they'd made and eaten breakfast it was after 7 and the sound of a door opening brought their attention to the hall, where Mandy stood rubbing her eyes in a pink nightgown.

She froze when she realized it wasn't her parents at the table, and then only mildly relaxed when she recognized Dean and Elizabeth a second later.

"Good morning," Elizabeth smiled, "you're up early."

Mandy nodded and look to be on the verge of retreating to her room again. She really was much more timid when Olivia or Sam wasn't around.

"You want some breakfast sweetheart?" Dean asked.

Mandy considered it and then nodded, moving to the table while keeping an eye on both of them.

"We found some oatmeal; I hope it was ok for us to eat it." Elizabeth sat down next to her.

"Mommy makes it with milk," Mandy replied softly.

"I think I can manage that," Elizabeth assured her. "How about strawberries, do you like those?"

Mandy nodded,

"Alright, then you just sit back and we'll get some breakfast." Elizabeth winked. She busied herself making the oatmeal while Dean wandered into the living room and turned on the television keeping the volume low. He flipped through about a dozen channels before flicking it back off in disgust. Propaganda. On every channel, every advertisement managed to fit in something about how the Northern government was doing the best for its people, encouraging new recruits to sign up daily, praising the president and military.

"Nothing on?" Elizabeth asked mildly, sliding a bowl of oatmeal in front of Mandy with a strawberry cut into a heart on top.

"Nothing I haven't seen before." Dean replied leaning against the door way from the living room to the kitchen.

"How about a radio, maybe some music would help." Elizabeth suggested.

"Radios don't play music," Mandy looked up with a frown. "They just talk about boring grown up stuff."

"Oh, I see." Elizabeth corrected herself. "Well then I guess we'll have to make our own music. What's your favorite song Mandy?"

"I don't know very many songs." The child admitted. "I know the flag song, and the school song, and one that Daddy sometimes hums when I'm sleepy. He doesn't say the words though."

Dean looked curiously at her, and then started to hum a tune under his breath. Mandy perked up. "Yeah, that's the one! How come you know it too?"

"When Sam and I were little our Mom would hum that, sometimes sing it too. I bet your Daddy doesn't remember the words because he was too little."

"Daddy doesn't talk about when he was little." Mandy said poking at her oatmeal. "I asked if I had any grandmas or grandpas one time, but Mommy got sad and Daddy didn't talk a lot until the next day."

"When your Daddy was little like you, we lived in a house fa away, me and him would play in the yard after school." Dean explained crossing to take another seat at the table. He was encouraged when Mandy didn't shrink away from him this time.

"Could you maybe sing the song again?" Mandy asked shyly. "I wanna know the words and surprise Daddy." Her green eyes lit up at the thought.

Dean thought for a minute and then began to hum a melody under his breath, after a few bars of what Elizabeth surmised was an introduction, he began singing softly.

"Oh, the summer time is coming, and the trees are sweetly blooming. And the wild mountain thyme grows around the blooming heather. Will you go, lassie, will you go? And we'll all go together, to pull wild mountain thyme all around the blooming heather. Will you go, lassie, go?"

Mandy sat entranced, drinking in every word. "What's a heather?" She finally asked.

"It's a plant; they grow pretty purple flowers and can survive in pretty harsh conditions." Dean explained.

"Like outside in the winter?" Mandy pressed. "Mommy one time said she used to have a garden before she lived with Daddy, but it gets too cold her for any of her old plants."

"I remember." Elizabeth replied, "When she lived in the city she always had window boxes full of bright plants."

"I didn't know that." Dean commented. "Maybe she'd like to have something like that again."

"Maybe." Elizabeth agreed. Both of them knew that finding flowers for Olivia was just about impossible until they gained some status here.

Mandy was practicing the words to the familiar tune, but kept mixing them up. After the third attempt she crossed her arms and pouted until Dean repeated the verse and let her echo each line. After a few more tries they heard a shuffling coming down the hall and Mandy out a tiny finger to her lips.

"It's a secret, remember!"

Dean and Elizabeth both nodded and clapped hands over their mouths.

The figured proved to be Sam, already dressed in uniform with a grim set to his face.

"Something wrong?" Dean asked, recognizing the look.

"A call came into my private line a little while ago. Instructions for the two of you."

Elizabeth felt her pulse pound. "And?"

"Dean is to report with me today, they want you at building 11 by 10 am." Sam replied.

"Building 11, that's covert operations." Dean said raising an eyebrow, "At least it was last time I was here."

"It hasn't changed." Sam confirmed.

"Covert operations as in spies." Elizabeth said in realization. "They want me to spy for them. On my own people."

"It's a test, it has to be." Dean assured her.

"Then I'll take the damn test and prove that I don't really care one way or the other." Elizabeth replied and stalked off to get dressed.

"They want her to prove her loyalty. After everything that happened these last few days they still don't trust her?" Dean rounded on Sam after his wife was out of earshot.

"Would you?" Sam asked seriously. "Did you trust me?"

"I don't know if I do now." Dean replied and a tiny gasp from the corner alerted them both to the fact that Mandy was still in the room.

"Hey Princess," Sam turned to her, ignoring Dean's last comment. "You're up early today aren't you?" He reached out his arms and pulled her up into them.

"She made me breakfast." Mandy replied, "The lady with the yellow hair."

"Elizabeth" Sam clarified and Mandy nodded. She wrinkled her nose. "She thought the radio played music."

"Dean and Elizabeth came from a place that is very different from here; we need to help them adjust to a new life. Do you think you can do that Princess?"

Mandy glanced at Dean and nodded. Her eyes looked wary again and Dean feared the fragile bond they made that morning was breaking again.

"Mandy, we're going to count on you for help alright?" He ventured. "You're like the grown up here, and we need you to teach us."

"Ok."

"Why don't you go get dressed, Mammy should be up and she'll help you with your clothes." Sam suggested, leaning down to place Mandy's bare feet on the ground. She hurried off to do as she was told.

"Grab a uniform and meet me back here with Elizabeth, we'll head out together and show her where to go." Sam turned to Dean who sighed and nodded.

He knocked on the door to the room he'd shared with his wife and a muffled "come in," Came from the other side.

She was facing the opposite wall pulling her hair back into a low ponytail which she then began to pin in a bun. It wasn't until then that Dean realized how long her hair had gotten in their time as rogues.

"Do you have to hide it under the hat?" Dean asked coming up behind her.

"Considering it's my first day, yes I think I should wait a bit before blatantly disregarding protocol." Elizabeth smiled wryly slipping the last pin into place and taking the short brimmed black hat from the dresser and fitting it on top of her head. She studied herself in the mirror, taking in the dark green pants and boots, and the black shirt and jacket that completed the uniform.

"I feel like Bizarro me." She commented at length. "I never in a million years thought I'd be wearing this uniform."

Dean was in the middle of changing into a similar ensemble and looked up as he slipped into the black undershirt and began tucking it into his own pants. "I know it's not ideal, I wouldn't have ever brought you into this if I'd known where it would go."

Elizabeth turned sharply. "You didn't bring me into anything. I showed up at that recruiting station on my own and worked my hardest to get where I was. If this is anyone's fault it's the damn government officials that wouldn't listen to us in the South."

"Sure." Dean sighed. "Come on, we need to hurry to meet Sam." He grabbed the black jacket and slipped one arm into it as he opened the door with the other.

Olivia was in the hallway a few doors down talking to what must have been Mandy. She turned and let out a sharp breath seeing them both in the Northern military uniform.

"Morning." Dean greeted and continued past her.

"I can't stop to chat, I've been requested at covert operations," Elizabeth explained.

Olivia's eyes went wide at that. "We'll talk tonight," She assured her friend and turned back to her daughter as the couple hurried out to the main room.

Sam nodded as they approached and led the trio out the door down a corridor and finally out to the courtyard of the compound. It was substantially colder out here and Elizabeth shivered a bit even through the jacket. The temperature seemed to have no effect on the brothers, but Dean placed an arm around her shoulders briefly. "You get used to it" he assured her.

The gray snow from their arrival was covered in a fresh white coat that must have fallen during the night, or perhaps the previous day Elizabeth realized as she'd missed a good 36 hours while she slept. They tramped along a cleared path to the gravel road the lead out to the main part of the compound and Sam pointed to a row of one story buildings across from the Academy building.

"They're numbered on the front. You want number 11. Just tell them you were requested to report at 10:00."

"Right." Elizabeth took a step off in the direction before Dean asked "Do you want us to walk you?"

"I'm fine. I can read the numbers all by myself." Elizabeth assured him with a teasing smile.

"Sure, I know, it's just-"

"I'll be ok, go on, you'll be late to your post." She shooed them off and walked with determination, staring right back at any curious soldiers on the way.

The man door to building 11 was off to the side of a much larger rolling door and it opened readily to her touch. The building was mostly open space with clusters of desks and tables set up at various locations throughout. Nearby faces looked up and one soldier roughly asked what her business was.

"I'm Elizabeth Winchester, I was directed to be here at 10 am for covert operations." She said in what she hoped was a clear confident voice.

The man nodded and signaled for her to follow him through the building. Those nearby had heard the name Winchester and very few of them tried to disguise their blatant curiosity.

She was lead to one of the few doors in the place and the man rapped on it sharply. It was opened by a tall man with an intense stare, which when turned on her she found made her very uncomfortable.

"Yes." He asked, and the first soldier explained who she was.

"That will be all Cadet." The tall man dismissed the other and gestured for Elizabeth to enter the room.


	8. Walk This Way

_AN: I have been a terrible person lately and forgetting to update…..as an apology, (and a method of procrastination if I'm being brutally honest) here's another chapter!_

Inside she found two others besides the tall man. A young man who looked about 20 and a woman about her own age.

"This is Elizabeth Winchester." The tall man introduced her to the others. "She'll be working with us for a while."

"Winchester, like Sam Winchester?" The young man asked.

"Yes Tran, like Sam Winchester."

"He's my brother in law actually." Elizabeth explained, but that only had the woman leaning forward in her own chair.

"Brother in law." She repeated. "So are you his wife's sister or his brother's wife?"

Elizabeth smirked and internally answered 'kind of both?' but spoke, "Dean Winchester is my husband."

"So it's true then, I'd heard he was back." She crossed her arms and tossed a flyaway red hair out of her face.

"Bradbury, everything in this room is on a need to know basis. You too Tran." The tall man barked.

"Yes sir Captain." Tran mock saluted. Elizabeth was shocked by the level of comfort these two seemed to have with their commanding officer.

"Sir," She ventured softly, his eyes fell upon her again and she took that as permission to speak. "I have about a dozen questions that I'm sure will be answered, but first, what am I to call you."

"From now on I will be your commanding officer, you call me Captain, Sir, or Gadreel." He instructed.

"Yes Sir." It was amazing how easy it was to slip back into the military roles.

"You will be working with Bradbury and Tran as well as myself on sensitive issues. These issues are not to be discussed out of this room, unless it is at a sanctioned event. You won't tell your husband, brother in law or even President Roman without my say so. Is that clear Winchester?

"Of course sir." Elizabeth affirmed.

"Then these two can fill you in on procedure, I have a meeting and should be back before noon." With that Gadreel left her standing in front of two sets of curious eyes.

"So now that Captain Stick-in-the-mud is gone, let's chat." Bradbury patted the empty seat to her left.

"I'm supposed to be working here, that's all." Elizabeth wasn't sure how much she could tell these two, but supposed a version of the truth would be the best and easiest to stick with.

"Yeah sure, but Charlie and I have some burning questions first." Tran answered. "By the way, call me Kevin,"

"Ok." Elizabeth sank into the indicated chair and waited for a question.

"So I was just a kid at the Academy when Dean Winchester defected, but it was big news, don't really know all the specifics, but I take it he stayed in military work on the other side." Kevin began.

"There isn't too much else that pays well." Elizabeth conceded.

"So you're from the South." Charlie jumped in, "What's it like?"

Elizabeth thought for a minute, trying to find something neutral that wouldn't come off as too sympathetic. "Warm I guess."

Both the others laughed. "Well that's a given." Charlie said through her laughter.

"And you ended up here because?" Kevin pressed.

"I didn't agree with what the South was doing anymore, Dean and I were rogue agents for a while before we decided to turn our loyalties North. Dean has a pretty good working knowledge of the system here and Sam vouched for us when we arrived." She glossed over the day of interrogation and torture. "We're staying with his family for now."

"So how did you end up with us?" Charlie asked. "Covert ops isn't exactly the biggest recruiter, as you can see by my lack of coworkers."

Kevin threw a wad of paper in her general direction.

"I just went where I was assigned. I did some covert work when I was in the South, and I guess the months of avoiding both armies helped my credibility." Elizabeth shrugged.

"You were in the army there too?"

"Like I said, nothing else pays very well."

"So you would know about their code sequences right?" Charlie asked, eyes flicking to a large sheet of chart paper on the table in front of her.

"A bit yeah. We all used them."

"You don't look Southern," Kevin interrupted.

Elizabeth laughed. "Yeah, I used that to my advantage too, I never looked suspicious in Northern territory when we were rogue. Dean though, he doesn't exactly look Northern, now does he?"

"I don't know, there aren't that many pictures of him floating around, or any of us I guess." Kevin shrugged.

"Take my word on that," Elizabeth assured him.

"But those codes," Charlie said without looking up from her chart paper. "Could you maybe take a look at this and see if any of it looks familiar? I've been trying to crack this one for three days."

Elizabeth had been avoiding looking too closely at the sequence, in case she did recognize it. Until now she would have been able to pass off any accusations as she hadn't been asked for assistance.

After about thirty seconds of studying the code, her heart sank. It was one that she'd used before. Now came the moment of truth. Was she going to give secrets to the enemy?

She shook herself, remembering that the South was no longer home. They'd turned their back on her and she'd swiftly done the same. She couldn't go back if she'd wanted to. In a moment of decisiveness, she picked up a pencil and began writing out a series of numbers and letters on a blank piece of paper.

Charlie watched with ever growing surprise as she translated the entire code in a few minutes. At the conclusion of the message she passed off the paper to Charlie without reading the intended message. She didn't need to wait long.

"Fleet to meet at St. Michael's cove, January 15th 4 PM."

There was more too it, specifics that would do a field unit a lot more good than their little group in a safe room, but the gist was said.

"Damn, you are gonna be our own secret weapon." Charlie whispered and practically skipped off to deliver the message to a higher up.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Dean asked as he followed Sam through a network of tunnels. After they'd split off from Elizabeth, the brothers set off on a familiar path to the far corner of the compound where the prison facilities were located. The sprawling building was three stories high, but held many more corridors and rooms underground. It was in these rooms that interrogations took place, and where Sam was leading Dean now.

"Well I figured we'd see how your skills held up over the years." Sam directed. "Though it's been getting easier recently. Half the time the scumbags hear the name Winchester and start spilling their guts before I even get in the room."

"Scumbags huh?" Dean muttered and Sam nudged him with his shoulder and let out a slight shake of his head. 'not now' he seemed to say.

"Thought I'd ease you back into it." Sam spoke aloud and stopped at a door with a file folder sitting in the sleeve that was tacked next to it. "Paul Riley." He handed Dean the file. "He's been using the chaos at the border to make hand offs to human traffickers. Illegal workers from both sides looking for a better chance on the other, but more recently he's graduated to sex trafficking. We have some intel that says he picked up a group of about 10 teenage girls from a Southern border town and has them stashed somewhere on this side waiting for payments from buyers."

Dean's skin crawled looking at the man. From the booking photo he could see that the man was definitely Northern, his skin was so pale it almost looked translucent, and his blonde hair barely had any pigment either. "Nasty son of a bitch" Dean agreed. "So we want the location of the girls?"

"And the names of the buyers."

"And what happens to the girls if we do find them?" Dean asked.

"What do you mean?" Sam looked confused.

"I mean do they get to go home, or do they end up here like we did."

"That's not my call Dean, and besides, anything is better than where they were headed when we picked this guy up." Sam shook his head. "Come on, I figure we can tag team this one and see what you remember. He was in a sensory overload room all night, so he should be nice and talkative today."

Dean nodded and followed Sam into the room. Riley was handcuffed to a chair bolted in the center of the floor. In the corner a tray of shiny metal things with sharp edges laid waiting in case it was needed. Riley didn't react to their entering the room, and his head lolled forward limply.

"Mr. Riley," Sam spoke rather loudly and the man snapped upright, it seemed he'd been asleep. Dean couldn't blame him after a night in sensory overload.

"Mr. Paul Riley. You sure are hard to track down." Sam continued, gesturing at the man with the folder in his hand. "Took us a bit to find you, but now there's something else we want to find,"

Riley glanced up at Sam's impassive face and seemed to mull over his words. "Cram it up your ass. I got nothing to say to you."

Sam frowned. "Right. That makes my job real easy then doesn't it." He put the folder down on top of the tray and began to slowly roll up his sleeves. "See I know that you have a shipment of girls here from the South. I want to know where they're being held and who the buyers are."

"And what do I get in return?" Riley asked. "I'm already in this hellhole. I might as well just be dead already if half the stories are true about this place."

"Let me assure you Mr. Riley, the stories are true. And what you get is that you get me, out of this room and you never see me again." Sam finished one sleeve and started the other.

"Look as much as I'd love to lose your ugly mug in a crowd I ain't really seeing the upside for me. Maybe if we made a deal I'd be more inclined to give some information up."

"You misunderstand." Sam explained. "You seem to think you have some kind of rights here. And trust me on this. In about half an hour you're going to wish you'd just told me what I wanted to hear."

"And what makes you so special?" Riley spat at him, rattling his chains.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced. Mr. Riley, my name is Sam Winchester. That over there is my brother, Dean."

At the name Winchester a look of pure terror flashed across Riley's face, but was quickly replaced with another smirk.

"Right, I'm supposed to believe that. It's common knowledge that Dean Winchester traded alliances years ago. He's off somewhere in the South on a beach with some babes in bikinis."

Dean stepped up. "Everybody always says that. You know the whole South isn't a beach, and people down there think it's just a perpetual blizzard up here. Ignorant people mostly. Idiots who try to mouth off while chained to a chair."

Riley opened his mouth but Dean kept talking. "Believe what you want Mr. Riley, but I believe Sam when he says you'll break in half an hour." He glanced back at Sam. "Actually, I could probably do it in 20 minutes, but then I am the older brother." The smile that was turned on Riley was dark and twisted in a way Dean hadn't been in years.

As he picked up a serrated blade, all the tension that had been piling up as of late was lessened, and with the first slash into the body in front of him, he felt at ease. In control. He understood why Sam was able to do this all day and still come home to a loving family at the end of it. Elizabeth had seen the briefest glimpse of this alternate persona a few days ago, but he would not let her see him go any farther. As he was sure that Sam never let Olivia see that side of him now, or god forbid Mandy, from the first cut it was clear that this was how Sam survived over here and kept his sanity and morality somewhat intact.

It only took 15 minutes for Riley to shout a desperate "Wait! Please, I'll tell you whatever you want!" He was a bloody mess at this point, and Sam calmly took over the questioning again as Dean stepped back to clean off the knife he'd been using. Glancing down he saw the dry crusted blood on his hands, covered by smears of still wet. It should have been unnerving, but it wasn't. On what felt like auto pilot he used the rag to wipe off his hands as best he could and leaned up against the wall to listen to Riley's story.

"We-We took them to an abandoned airstrip just on this side of the border." He winced with each breath. "I have two guys there guarding them until I show up for transport or call with instructions."

"You're going to make a call." Sam instructed holding out a burner cell phone. "You're going to tell them that the deal is off and they need to drop the girls back at the border. Say that as long as the girls are picked up by the Southern authorities they won't be tied to the crime. And Paul, if you say anything else, you'll regret it." Sam warned.

Dean listened as the man put on an admirable performance and looked at them expectantly when he hung up the phone. "So? How'd I do?"

"Not bad Paul." Sam tapped the list of names Paul had started spewing after Dean was through. "We'll be running this list and if anything comes back off, we know where to find you."

"Nothing will." Paul assured them.

"Great." Sam turned to go and Paul let out an audible sigh of relief, then Sam turned sharply on his heel and landed a punch to the man's gut that knocked the wind out of him.

Without a word he walked out and Dean followed. Sam let out a long breath as the door closed behind them and cracked the knuckles of his right hand. "Couldn't let you have all the fun right?" He asked with a small smirk.

"Thanks Sammy, for what you did about the girls." Dean said clapping his brother on the shoulder.

"They weren't the bad guys Dean. Regardless of what you think of us, at least know that I'm still your brother, we're on the same side here."

"I know, I know Sammy." Dean sighed.

The rest of the day passed rather quickly for Elizabeth in her new position. Once Gadreel returned from his meeting, Charlie eagerly told him about their new recruit's code breaking skills, and he seemed as delighted as she'd been. Kevin was a bit put off for the first hour, as he'd apparently been the superstar before her arrival, but a few conversations about logic and reasoning and a few thought experiments later, he seemed just as glad as Charlie to have her around.

"So what's life like with the Winchesters?" He asked after close to an hour of silence as they all worked on separate problems.

Elizabeth looked up at the captain who hadn't even moved from his position staring, arms crossed at whatever he'd written on the white board on the wall.

"Umm, shouldn't we be working?" She asked nervously.

"I'm stuck. Need to take a break and think about something else. Don't worry about him; he tunes us all out pretty well." Kevin nodded at Gadreel who, true to the boy's word didn't even seem to realize they were speaking.

"Come on, they've got to be the most interesting scandal since the war started. And I'm sure we don't even know the whole story right?" He leaned forward in his chair, dark eyes wide with interest. Even Charlie only had half her attention on the code she was working on.

"Well, um, what did you want to know?" Elizabeth asked.

"Tell us what really happened, how did Dean end up joining the South and how did he end up back here, with you?"

"I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about-"

"What happens in this room stays in this room, like Cap said, we can't even tell our families." Kevin insisted.

"Not that my girlfriend hasn't tried." Charlie put in.

"Sure, rub in again how single I am." Kevin rolled his eyes.

Elizabeth held up her left hand and pointed at the ring, "Married, I don't get a voice here." She wasn't touching that conversation with a ten foot pole.

"But anyway, the point still stands. As long as it's not a national security secret, you can tell us anything." Kevin said.

"Well, in that case, I don't really know much about how Dean ended up in the South, he doesn't talk about it, just that he didn't like the politics up here." She hurried right along, ignoring the raised eyebrows of her audience. "But that was before he realized that the South wasn't any better. We just got sick of all the lies and what we had to do for the people with the power. Five years ago we defected and went rogue."

"Five years ago was about the time they had all the publicity about Sam Winchester's marriage to that Olivia girl. Then she just dropped off the planet. The only time the news mentions them is on their anniversary." Charlie commented.

"She's here, they live here." Elizabeth explained.

"I remember something about them having a baby," Charlie led.

"She's almost 5 years old now, my little niece." Elizabeth nodded.

"But if you were rogue why would you come here?" Kevin asked, switching the conversation topic.

"There were some, uh, unforeseen complications." Elizabeth fumbled for words.

"Unforeseen like someone got hurt or…" Kevin faded off, obviously not satisfied with her vague answer.

"No, I actually, I found out I'm pregnant." Elizabeth muttered and looked at the floor.

A squeal from Charlie made her look up in time to see the redhead bound around her desk to clasp the other girl in a hug, "Oh, that's amazing! Congratulations!"

Elizabeth realized that she was the first person to react to the pregnancy as though it were a normal thing; people had babies all the time, even here it was considered a good thing, worthy of congratulations.

"Hear that Cap? We're gonna have an office baby!" Charlie called to Gadreel who finally turned to the group.

"All I heard was desk duty until the baby arrives." He informed them, but a smile played on his face. "You must be excited about this, do you know when to expect the little one?"

"Not until late summer." Elizabeth assured him.

"All right then, back to work all of you, the day's almost over." Gadreel turned back to his problem on the board and made a few adjustments to the numbers before nodding in satisfaction and moving to copy it to a sheet of paper to be handed off to another office.

Elizabeth felt totally accepted by her new team, and was completely unprepared for that realization. These people were who she'd considered her enemy all her life taught to hate from her school days. But here was a woman who was genuinely happy for her without a thought that they'd been fighting on opposing sides just a few years earlier. It dawned on her that she'd been demonizing the entirety of the North from the onset of the war. Even the refugees in the border towns they'd stayed in during their rogue years. The conflict wasn't between the people; it was between the leaders and regimes that knew how to manipulate them into hating each other.


	9. Same Old Song and Dance

_AN: This chapter and the next one are very closely related, I debated posting them as one long chapter, but decided that I will post the second half tomorrow instead of making ya'll wait till Saturday. You are welcome lol_

The next few weeks passed in much the same fashion as the first day. Dean went with Sam and eased back into his old role in interrogation and Elizabeth worked with Charlie, Kevin and Gadreel in covert ops. The work varied day to day but true to his word, Gadreel mentioned nothing about field work to his pregnant new operative.

On the Friday of her third week at special ops, the phone on Gadreel's desk rang, and he answered it as usual with a curt "yes" followed by a "yes, of course Sir, she's right here." He looked up "Winchester! President Roman wants to speak to you."

Charlie's mouth dropped open and Kevin nearly dropped the file he was reading. Elizabeth swallowed and crossed the room to take the phone from Gadreel. "Elizabeth Winchester speaking Sir."

"Hello there dear, I had hoped to speak to you sooner but I've been terribly busy these last few weeks. How are you adjusting?" Dick Roman spoke cordially but everything she'd read and heard about this man had her on high alert.

"Rather well Sir. The special operations unit has been very welcoming." Charlie beamed at her words.

"And at home, must be nice to have the family back together again. By the way, speaking of family, I'd like to offer my congratulations on your coming little one. Mandy must be excited to have a cousin." Roman replied. Elizabeth's stomach twisted at his words. He knew everything, she hadn't kept the pregnancy a secret out of concern for the baby, but hearing this vile twisted man talk about Mandy and her child was extremely unsettling.

"Yes, I would imagine she is." Elizabeth spoke softly.

"I can assure you that you will have the best medical care the North can provide, I'm sure our Olivia can attest to their competency in a tough situation." He kept talking, seeming to like the sound of his voice. "Of course the people will be thrilled. Nothing stirs up patriotism like weddings and babies. I'd like to invite all of you to the president's mansion for a party next week. Let you rub elbows with some higher ups and get out of that abysmal compound for an evening." He gave the impression that she couldn't decline the invitation, so left with no other choice she weakly responded, "That, that sounds lovely sir."

"Wonderful! I'll send some people over with details and something nice for you and Olivia to wear! I look forward to meeting you in person my dear." The line went dead and Elizabeth limply put down the receiver and crossed back to her desk.

Kevin and Charlie were trying very hard to look busy but she knew that the second Gadreel stepped out they'd be all over her to know what the conversation was about.

Thankfully he was in the office for the rest of the day, and Elizabeth was able to get away quickly. She nearly ran back to the apartment and when the door clicked shut behind her she let out a long breath and then a shuddering sob before regaining her composure and venturing into the living room.

It was empty and for a few minutes, she sat in the silence, thinking over the conversation from earlier and what it implied. Olivia had told her a little about what happened early on when Sam took her and she began living in the North. Roman had used her as a pawn to rally sympathy and support from the people of the North, painting her as cast out by the South for carrying a Northerner's child. She and Sam had been married before Mandy's birth in a staged ceremony that had every detail prearranged by the president to appear as carefree and gay as possible. Mandy was branded the nations daughter from the time she was born and Elizabeth could see it all happening again with her child.

The door clicked open again and Sam's voice called out "Liv?"

"She's not here, just me." Elizabeth called back, and a few seconds later Sam followed by Dean came into the living room. She stood and went to Dean who slipped an arm around her waist. His hands were damp still; he'd needed to clean up after finishing for the day then. As uncomfortable as that made her feel, she pushed the thought out of her mind and nestled into his chest.

"Something wrong?"

"I got a call at work today." She replied shakily. "From President Roman."

Dean's hand, which had been tracing circles on her back, froze and his face hardened. "What did he want?"

"We're going to a party at the Presidential mansion next weekend. I got the impression I wasn't supposed to decline."

"No, you weren't."

"He congratulated me on the baby too." Elizabeth continued. Dean's lip drew back and his eyes flicked to her still flat stomach. "He talks about us like we're all family or something."

"He's powerful, and capable of making our lives very difficult." Dean replied. "He's using every advantage he can to make sure that we stay loyal and the people of the North believe that they have the upper hand in the war."

"So you're saying we go, we make nice and we just do whatever he wants?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes. For now, we do whatever he wants." Dean agreed.

"Olivia isn't going to like this." Sam commented from the couch. "The last time she saw President Roman was back when Mandy was an infant. I think he said some things to her that really messed her up for a while."

"We'll make a point of not leaving her alone." Elizabeth replied.

A few days later a package showed up at the apartment with the return address of the president's mansion. Olivia found some scissors and they curiously opened the box to find three glittering dresses, one much smaller than the other two, and two tuxedos that complemented the two larger dresses very nicely.

"There's a note." Dean said picking up a piece of stationary from the bottom of the package. He read if over quickly and then pointed at the first dress, strapless and black with a pattern of silver crystals across the bodice. "That's for Elizabeth, the black suit is for me," Then he indicated the second adult dress, a creamy white material with long sleeves and a high back, but a queen Anne's cut to the neck line. "He wants Olivia to wear this one, Sam's in the grey suit, and there's a grey and white dress for Mandy."

Mandy of course was ecstatic about the new dress, and upon hearing that there was to be a party, she immediately insisted on trying on the dress and seeing her Mommy and Elizabeth in theirs as well. To placate the girl they agreed and stepped into Olivia and Sam's room to change. Elizabeth had to admit that even though the dress was not one she would have picked, it fit her perfectly. Glancing at Olivia she saw again that the dress chosen for her was brilliant. It kept her scars covered but looked effortless and stunning with her dark hair. Mandy pranced around the room in her new dress, declaring that she needed to show Daddy right away and skipped out to the living room.

"You look amazing." Elizabeth commented to Olivia, who was fidgeting in front of the mirror.

"Thanks, you too." She replied distracted.

"It's going to be ok you know. You aren't alone anymore." Elizabeth assured her friend.

"It's not me I'm worried about. I've been through this, being Dick's toy, letting him show me off for his own benefit. I was pretty messed up when he got to me back then. I don't want him to get to you like he did to me. And Mandy was just another way for him to play into everyone's sympathies. He painted her like some outcast half-breed child that the South would have just as soon seen dead than living in their borders. I don't want him to do the same to your baby." Olivia explained.

"I can play a part, that's gotten me this far at least." Elizabeth assured her. "Besides, if you were strong enough to get through it, I can too right?"

"I hope so."

The night of the party a car was sent for the five of them at 5:30 pm. Elizabeth had put her hair up and offered to help Mandy do hers similarly. The little girl sat very still in her chair as Elizabeth carefully pinned sections of her hair up in the back and let the long curls fall in a more controlled way than usual behind her.

"Auntie," Mandy had taken to calling her that a few days after she'd arrived, for some reason, Dean was still just Dean, or "Daddy's brother."

"Yes honey?" Elizabeth looked up at her in the mirror.

"Is the party going to be fun?" She asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?"

"Will there be music?" Mandy asked looking hopeful.

"I don't know sweetie. I've never been to a party here before." Elizabeth replied truthfully.

"I wish the radio played music like you thought," Mandy continued. "Where you lived before, did they play music?"

Elizabeth paused her hands and thought for a moment. Mandy didn't know much about where she and Dean had come from, or why they were here now, or why she didn't have much of a family besides them.

"Yes, they did play music. And when we went to parties we danced." She said at length.

"Will we dance tonight?" Mandy wanted to know.

"I don't know." Elizabeth replied. "We'll find out together." She put the last pin in and declared Mandy done. "Nothing is poking your head is it?" Elizabeth asked as Mandy carefully evaluated her new hairstyle.

"Nope. I look pretty!" The girl declared excitedly. She swung her hair back and forth a few times and then turned and wrapped Elizabeth's knees in a tight hug. "Thank you Auntie!"

A few minutes later they were all bundled up in coats and scarves and ready for the car. Mandy was once again quiet and sat between her parents across from Elizabeth and Dean.

Dean leaned over and breathed into Elizabeth's ear "She looks terrified."

It was true; Mandy did look as though she might start crying at any moment. Not that the atmosphere in the rest of the group was much better. Sam was stoic, sitting rigid with his eyes down cast; Olivia looked nervous too and kept glancing out the window into the frigid darkness. Dean continually brought his hands up to his mouth and bit at his nails, something Elizabeth had only seen him do unconsciously when he was nervous, and she knew that her legs had been shaking and bouncing from the moment she sat down on the black leather seat, and it had nothing to do with the cold.

"We aren't exactly helping that," Elizabeth hissed back. Overtly she reached out and took Dean's hand and brought it to her lips for a soft kiss.

Mandy looked up at the movement and Elizabeth shot her a smile that was shakily returned. Olivia caught the exchange and pulled Mandy onto her lap and planted a kiss into her hair. After that, not a lot of movement occurred in the car until they arrived at the president's mansion and all watched as the gate slowly opened and the car pulled through. It clanged shut behind them making Elizabeth jump slightly.

When the wheels finally rolled to a stop, the door was whisked open and the group was led up a long flight of stairs made of polished marble, and through a grand entryway before finally they began to hear the chatter of the party on the other side of a large wooden door.

As it swung open revealing the top of a grand staircase, the chatter stopped and all eyes turned to the newcomers, before someone somewhere started applauding and the rest of the large room followed suit. Mandy shrank back into the folds of Olivia's skirt even as Sam took a step forward and nodded politely to the room. Out of the crowd materialized a man with greying hair and in impeccable silver suit. Sam and Dean both snapped to attention, and Olivia's spine went ramrod straight. It took Elizabeth a moment longer to place him, all the propaganda shots showed him a strong and stern faced, this President Roman looked a little tired, but sported a wide grin for his guests.

"The guests of honor have finally arrived!" He announced to a room of adoring onlookers. "I'm so glad to finally have the whole family back together again! It's been over 10 years since both the Winchester brothers have been able to call themselves Northern Men, but after a slight rebellious period, they've brought back brides and, as I'm sure you all remember, Sam and Olivia welcomed a baby girl almost 5 years ago," He turned and indicated Mandy with a wolfish smile. "The nation's child, Miranda Lacey Winchester."

People were clamoring for a look at the little girl, and with Olivia still frozen to the spot, Sam ducked down and hoisted her onto his hip. She glanced out at the crowd and hid her face in his shoulder, which caused a laugh from the crowd.

"It's alright dear, the people just want to meet you, and your family." Roman continued with a sweeping gesture to both couples.

"It is an honor Mr. President," Sam spoke and at the same time put the arm not holding Mandy around Olivia's shoulders. To the crowd it looked like an endearing gesture, but both he and Roman knew it was more defensive than anything else.

"Please, Sam, it is I who am honored to welcome you and Olivia back to the president's mansion, and I must say it is our greatest pleasure to finally have the elder Winchester brother and his bride join us. I also hear that you two have some news for us?" Roman looked pointedly at Elizabeth's stomach.

At that moment she wished that she could blame the impending nausea on morning sickness, but thankfully it hadn't been too bad as of yet. "Yes, that's right Mr. President." Dean joined the semicircle that had formed on the landing. "We found out a few weeks ago that Mandy is going to have a little cousin next fall."

A delighted gasp came from many of the women in the crowd, followed quickly by another round of applause. Elizabeth found herself being pulled to the center of the group and President Roman held out a hand that she took as a reflex, surprised when he pulled her into a fatherly hug for the press that was assembled off to the side. "Play your part dear." He mumbled in her ear as he pulled away. She didn't need to ask what that meant.

"Dean and I, um that is, Captain Winchester," She stumbled with a nervous smile that made the crowd soften, "are overjoyed to announce that we are expecting our first child."

The noise grew as people called out questions and the press people eagerly waited for answers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please, I'm sure you'll all have a chance to meet the newest Mrs. Winchester and learn all the juicy details about the baby as the evening progresses, but for now I believe the staff has finished preparing dinner if you would all like to find your way into the dining room, we can eat."

Somewhat reluctantly the crowd turned away from the staircase and filed into the next room.

"You have been saved places at my personal table." President Roman assured the group and offered his arm to Elizabeth as they walked.

"You seem much less apprehensive about all this than I'd have guessed." He muttered to her out of earshot of the others.

"Of course sir, we don't really know anything about each other after all." She replied with a smile.

"No I suppose not, your past may be a bit of a mystery, but I do have the transcripts from Colonel Crowley's intake interview with you." Roman warned.

"Intake interview? Is that what you call sticking someone in a sensory overload chamber for 12 hours?" Elizabeth hissed back.

"I'll forgive your forwardness tonight Mrs. Winchester, but do not forget that everything that happens to you, your husband, and your child is because of what I allow or don't allow." Roman looked over to where Olivia was helping Mandy into a chair at the president's table. "You spoke to Olivia about her early days I assume?"

"I am not her," Elizabeth replied, longing to wrench her arm away from his reach. "I am not so alone in the world."

"You might still become her girl. Don't tempt me."

Elizabeth was stunned, she hadn't even considered the fact that Roman might go after her family in the South. She was sure by now they'd heard about her resurfacing in the North probably with a Northern husband, and she'd been prepared to never hear from them again. But she'd also assumed that they'd be safer without her.

"Of course not sir." She replied lamely.

"Oh look, we've arrived, why don't you take a seat with your husband and I'll return shortly." Roman headed off without sparing her another look, and Elizabeth sank into the open chair next to Dean.

"What did he say?" He whispered taking her shaking hand in his warm one.

"That if I step out of line he'll go after my family in the South." Elizabeth replied with a sharp breath.

"You're the only one of us who still has a family left for him to threaten. I'm not saying he wouldn't try it, but it would be a pretty big feat for him to pull off without some media and political sensation around it. Why would he attack the family of his newest golden girl? Then he'd have to spin something up about how you were a traitor, and with all the sensation he's putting into showing you off, that wouldn't look very good on the part of his judgment would it? He's just trying to rattle you sweetheart."

"Well it worked." Elizabeth snapped. "I'll just play his game for now, until we can figure something out."


	10. Somebody Saved My Life Tonight

_AN: And here's the rest_ _….I'm a little sorry fir the end, but mostly just excited for the next chapter because I think you'll all really like where this is going!(also, reviews make authors happy!)_

Dean was smart enough to let it go at that, and turned back to the rest of the table,

"Congratulations," An older woman with short dark hair nodded to Elizabeth and Dean as she took a seat at the table.

"Thank you ma'am," Elizabeth replied with a polite smile.

"I'm Linda Tran, I work in the homeland division in the capital." She explained.

"She's one of the people that keeps our power on and water running." Dean explained while Elizabeth took a second look at Linda,

"Forgive me ma'am, but do you have a son?" She asked.

Linda looked startled but nodded, "Yes, Kevin is working out of the Academy, how did you know that?"

"I've been working with him for the past few weeks," Elizabeth explained diffusing the situation, "sorry if that sounded cryptic."

"Not at all, perhaps you could enlighten me as to what exactly my son does for the North, whenever I ask he says he doesn't want to bore me with the details." Linda looked concerned again. "He always sounds so tired, I hope he's eating well enough."

"I wish I could help you ma'am, but it really is pretty boring, just a lot of paperwork you know." Elizabeth brushed off the question as best she could, knowing without being told that there was a reason Mrs. Tran was being kept in the dark about her son's work.

"Well, I'm glad that someone sweet like you is around to look out for him, he's a bright boy you know."

A slight pressure on her shoulder alerted Elizabeth to the president's return, and the conversation dropped off as he took his seat and the food was brought out.

It really was quite good food all things considered. There were certainly no shortage of spices and butter in the president's mansion. Roman ate quickly and surprisingly neatly, but kept his gaze roaming the room as he wiped the crumbs from his mouth and put his napkin on his plate. A server hovering nearby hurried in to take the finished plate from him and he stood to address the room again.

"I'm afraid I must excuse myself for a bit to attend to some business," He glanced at his guests and continued, "I hope you'll manage to keep the party going in my absence."

Once the president left the room, the atmosphere at the head table relaxed significantly.

"Will there be dancing?" Elizabeth asked after a few minutes, and was met with openmouthed stares from the rest of the table.

Olivia and Sam carefully concealed their faces and Dean chuckled and placed a hand on hers. "Forgive my wife; things are a bit different where she comes from."

"Which is where exactly?" An older man asked curiously. "All we've been hearing is that you're a southern turn coat."

"Harold!" A woman of about the same age scolded the man from her place next to him. "Forgive my husband's language dear, we don't think you're a turn coat."

"Well, I suppose I am, if we want to get technical about it." Elizabeth shrugged. "What it really comes down to is that I couldn't trust the South to have my back when I needed them to."

"What is it like down there?" Harold asked brushing off his wife's tittering disapproval.

"You know that is the single most common question I've gotten while I've been here." Elizabeth chuckled, "But if you must know, it's pretty similar to the North in a lot of ways, but also rather different I guess."

"Different enough to have dancing." Harold muttered. "I've heard there are beaches year round."

"Only at the very southern parts, the rest has a winter much like here, just not quite so much snow. That's the part I come from originally,"

Over the course of the evening, this conversation played out a multitude of times, with little variation. The consensus seemed to be that to Northerner's the South was a country of beach loving, leisurely people who were ruining their own economy through laziness and took the North's offer of assistance as a threat of invasion so retaliated with their armies.

Neither Elizabeth nor Dean responded to such claims, choosing instead to change the subject or end the conversation.

The other main topic of conversation was the impending baby, on which many questions were asked that the couple just didn't have answers to. Was it a boy or a girl? Did they have a name? Should we expect all the fanfare that came with Mandy's birth?

Of course Elizabeth and Dean weren't the only ones being hammered with questions. Everyone wanted their chance to personally meet Olivia and Mandy, who did not seem to be enjoying the attention she was getting in the slightest. There were a few other children at the gala, but they all kept close to their parents and seemed as stoic as the adults. Mandy kept a hand on either Sam or Olivia and the other was constantly threatening to disappear into her mouth.

"She hasn't sucked her thumb in almost a year." Olivia whispered to Elizabeth during one of their short reprieves.

"She's probably nervous and exhausted, I know I am."

A server spied the women taking a rest and came over with a tray of drinks. "Could I offer you ladies some refreshment? It must be tiring being on display all evening."

"Thank you," Elizabeth nodded and selected a crystal glass of water, expecting Olivia to do the same, and was surprised when her friend reached for a Champaign flute instead and downed half the glass in one pull.

"Thirsty?" Elizabeth asked nodding at the now half a glass of Champaign.

"You could say so." Olivia replied, searching out Sam in the crowd, it wasn't hard to spot him, or the tiny figure curled on his hip. From this angle it was impossible to see if she was awake or asleep.

"Congratulations on the baby by the way," The server added shyly, "I remember when Miranda was born, we had the day off school and everything."

"Her birthday is a national holiday," Olivia agreed a bit tight lipped. She downed the rest of the Champaign and placed the flute back on the serving tray, standing a little too quickly, she balanced a hand on the back of her chair. "If you'll excuse me, I need to find my husband and see about getting the little princess to bed at a reasonable hour." She managed a smile and disappeared into the crowd.

"If you don't mind me asking, are you hoping for a boy or a girl?" The server asked, she seemed to have trouble maintaining eye contact, something Elizabeth had noticed in many people tonight.

"I'm not really sure, some days I want a little girl, but others I can imagine Dean chasing a little boy," The server girl laughed and brought a hand up to cover her mouth at Elizabeth's confused look.

"Sorry, it's just hard to imagine Captain Winchester as a father, he seems so, I don't know, kind of scary." She seemed to realize what she'd said and blushed a dark shade of pink "I mean, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that,"

"No, it's alright, he kind of is a little scary at first, but he's also very kind, and loyal and he'll make a great father. I just know it." Elizabeth assured the poor girl, "What's your name honey?" she appraised the girl who was probably about the age she'd been when she joined the army.

"Annie,"

"Nice to meet you Annie," Elizabeth replied with a smile, holding out her hand. As Annie shook it, Dean strode up to the table looking a bit tired, and a bit grouchy, and immediately Annie backed up a step.

"We were just talking about you." Elizabeth greeted as she held out a hand and ran it along Dean's shoulder as he flopped into the chair next to her. "Dean, this is Annie, she's been taking good care of me."

"Hello," Dean looked up and flashed a brilliant grin that Elizabeth knew was entirely for show, but it had the desired effect. Annie blushed again, more from embarrassment than distress, and muttered something about "nice to meet you" before hurrying back toward the kitchen.

"Something I said?" Dean asked watching her go with a raised eyebrow.

Elizabeth giggled. "Probably not, she's just a little skittish; it seems to be a common character trait around here."

"Well I've been sent to collect you; Sam talked President Roman into letting us out early since Mandy's been asleep on his shoulder for an hour. Come on the car is waiting out front."

They passed through the crowd with relative ease, a few calls of "nice to meet you" and "Good night" drifted in over the din of voices, but Elizabeth was relieved to avoid a formal goodbye to the President at least. Sam and Olivia were already situated in the back of the limo when they opened the door and climbed in, careful not to jostle Mandy who was curled up under Sam's suit jacket.

Not much was said on the drive back, everyone was tired and lost in their own thoughts for the time being, Elizabeth let her head rest on Dean's shoulder and found herself blinking back into consciousness as the car slowed to a stop to enter the gates of the Academy compound.

"Hey there," Dean murmured kissing her hair. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't" Elizabeth assured him, Sam had an arm curled around Olivia who must have fallen asleep at some point too, and the other ran softly over Mandy's sleeping frame.

The wheels crunched on the perpetually damp gravel and Elizabeth glanced out the window at the darkened deserted campus as they rolled slowly past the dormitory buildings towards the officers' apartments. A shape by one of the doors caught her attention as she was about to voice a question to the rest of the car, it registered in her head what it was.

A small boy, wearing what looked like pajamas huddled in a ball on the concrete step with one hand extended to the door half-heartedly banging on it.

"Stop the car!" Elizabeth shouted to the driver, jerking Olivia and Mandy both awake as she opened the door and dashed out into the freezing night. Dean was behind her in an instant and caught up by the time she reached the boy. He was tiny, probably less than 10 and had dark hair.

"We need to get him inside," Elizabeth started to unbutton her coat but Dean stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, she swiveled about to go off on him for interrupting, but was met with his held out suit jacket.

"Come on, you'll freeze and we have to hurry." Dean supplied. He bent down to the boy and spoke softly, "Hey there, you're ok, we're going to get you somewhere warm alright?" He reached out and the boy whimpered and shrank away, his short sleeved shirt left a lot of skin exposed to the air and Dean realized that he was probably disoriented from the cold.

He grabbed the jacket from Elizabeth and wrapped the boy in it hauling him into his arms, ignoring the protests and half-hearted thrashing that the boy protested with.

"It's ok sweetheart, its ok," Elizabeth cooed reaching out to brush back his hair, the skin on his forehead was ice cold and he shied away from her touch.

"Inside now," She confirmed. Olivia, Sam and Mandy caught up then and gasped at the sight of the boy. Rather than wait for the car again they crossed the short distance to the apartments on foot, Dean keeping the jacket wrapped tightly around the boy. As soon as they were inside Elizabeth ran into their bedroom grabbing blankets off the bed and Sam built up a fire in the fireplace of the main room.

Olivia slipped off to put Mandy to bed, which by some miracle took all of five minutes, and was back with a large dry t shirt a pair of pants that were in no way going to fit the tiny frame.

The boy was still disoriented and mumbling broken words that came out sounding like "sorry," "accident" "please" and most worryingly, "not again" as the adults rushed around trying to get his temperature back up.

"We need to warm him up," Olivia warned, as Dean unwrapped the jacket and carefully laid the little boy on the couch, his shirt was damp from probably a mix of sweat and snow and wasn't helping the situation she slipped it off over his head and pulled the much larger one on in its place. The boy's eyes snapped open for a second staring at her and she managed a smile, "hey there little guy, don't worry, you'll be fine," the blue irises slipped back beneath their lids as he seemed to pass out, not a good sign,

"His body temperature dropped awfully fast," Elizabeth whispered, "they don't lock those doors until 9 pm right?" She glanced at the clock; it was barely 10:30.

"He's tiny though, and the crap they feed Academy kids doesn't help put any meat on their bones." Dean started working the buttons on his dress shirt open, "Skin to skin will work faster, he explained at Elizabeth's bewildered expression, "turn up the heat too, it'll get warm in here, but he needs it." With that Dean turned and grabbed the comforter from their bed draping it around his shoulders and went to sit next to the kid on the couch, Olivia helped lift him up until he was resting on Dean's chest, and Dean let out a whoosh of breath as the freezing child leached all the heat from him.

For the next hour, he and Sam switched off sharing body heat with the boy until he wasn't icy to touch anymore, and Elizabeth and Olivia made up the spare room for the boy to sleep in. Once he'd warmed back to almost normal they tucked him into the bed with several extra blankets.

"Someone should stay in here, he'll panic if he wakes up somewhere strange all alone." Dean said. He'd been hovering near the boy even when he wasn't the one supplying heat. "You should get some sleep," He nodded to Sam and Olivia, who nodded back wearily and padded out towards their room.

"I'll bring you a blanket," Elizabeth sighed, "How does this happen? I mean there are adults in the dorms right? Someone looking out for the kids?"

Dean shrugged. "They're probably the ones who locked him out." He let out a slow breath thinking about his time at the academy. "Sam was a little older than him when we got here, I was older, so we were put in different buildings. I remember they were worse to the little kids, trying to break them before they turned into me I guess." He stopped speaking, and seemed lost in thought, Elizabeth took the opportunity to bring in one of the blankets from the living room and slid down onto the floor next to him, laying the blanket over both their knees.

"This place, it isn't exactly child friendly is it?" She asked, resting a hand over her stomach.

"Hey, don't think things like that, our baby is going to be great, they're going to be loved, and protected and have a real family alright?"

"And after tonight I can see why Olivia hates being a presidential prop, does it ever end?" Elizabeth sighed. "I mean, we're never going to just be able to live our lives how we want."

"Maybe not out there, but inside these walls, we're going to be alright, and there's a lot of people rooting for us to make it, you know that." Dean replied taking her hand in his.

"I wish we could talk to Ellen, and Adam, and maybe even my parents, they don't know anything about this." Elizabeth sighed.

"I know baby, I know." Dean kissed the hand he held, "Come on now, you two need to sleep," He spoke to her stomach and she let out a small laugh allowing herself to be hauled up and walked across the hall to their bedroom. Someone had thought to throw the comforter back on the bed and she deftly straightened it and crawled between the layers nestling down into the pillow. "I'll see you in the morning." Dean whispered, kissing her forehead before he turned to go.

Back in the guest room he settled on the floor and tried to bunch up the blanket to use as a pillow, but couldn't get comfortable. Instead he settled for leaning against the wall lost in memories until he finally drifted off somewhere around 3 am.


	11. Blackbird

_AN: Hi! My life is nuts, student teaching I wonderful and stressful and just everything I want out of life, you don't care, I know. On to the story!_

A squeak woke him the next morning, and for a minute he tried to remember why he was on the floor. A small gasp brought his attention up to the bed where a small head with wild black hair and wide blue eyes was staring at him in a mix of shock and fear.

"Morning," Dean groaned and stretched popping his back before standing up. The kid shrank back into the bed and gaped wide eyed at him.

"You have a name?" Dean asked gauging whether or not sitting on the edge of the bed would cause the kid to panic more, he decided it would.

"C-Castiel sir." The boy stuttered.

"Hello Castiel, do you remember what happened last night?" Dean asked.

Castiel's eyes seemed to get wider at the moment of realization and he began visibly shaking, "It was an accident, it won't happen again Sir, I promise,"

"Hey, calm down bud, you're not in trouble," Dean sighed and perched near the foot of the bed with a reassuring smile. "We were just worried about you is all, could you tell me what happened?"

"Some of the older boys were messing with my stuff, they took the picture of my mom and dad, so I," He broke off looking down,

"Don't worry, I won't be mad," Dean assured him, "did you get upset?"

Castiel nodded "I, I hit one of them and threw stuff at the other one until a teacher came in and made me stop. He said if I was going to act like an animal I could go sleep with the animals, outside."

"Did you get your picture back?" Dean asked, Castiel's head snapped up.

"No." He crumpled and began to cry.

Dean moved closer and placed a hand on Castiel's shoulder, "Don't worry buddy, we'll get it back alright? Me and you. I'm Dean by the way."

"Hello Dean," Castiel hiccupped in response and winced as he shifted beneath the blankets.

"Something hurt?" Dean asked mildly, they hadn't really looked for injuries last night, far more concerned with getting Castiel's body temperature back up..

"They hit me back, on my arm and my back I think," Castiel replied, He looked down and realized he was in different clothes, "I don't remember getting changed." He said in a small voice.

"Last night we found you outside Castiel, Elizabeth, that's my wife, she saw you by the door, and we brought you inside to warm you up,"

"Elizabeth." Castiel tried out the new name, "That's Captain Winchester's wife's name," Realization dawned on him and he scrambled to an awkward salute, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize, forgive me sir,"

"Relax," Dean said with a chuckle. "I'm just a person, I promise,"

"They talk about you in school, and Sam too, I knew you lived here but I didn't think, I mean I wouldn't have,"

"Relax, that's an order." Dean said again and Castiel fell silent. "You aren't in trouble, I won't tell anyone what happened and you're staying here until we make sure you're not hurt ok?"

Castiel nodded.

"So how about breakfast? Mandy's probably up already, you'd like her, she's a little younger than you but she's a little rocket."

Dean stepped towards the door, but Castiel seemed too shocked to move still. Dean sighed and held out a hand to the boy. "You need to eat Cas," The nickname came out naturally, and Castiel looked up in wonder.

"My brothers call me that." He pulled the blankets back and slid to the edge of the bed. "I haven't seen them much since last year though."

"Are any of them here?" Dean asked, distracting Castiel seemed to help him relax.

"Gabriel is with the older boys, but Michael and Lucifer are older than him, they're in the army now."

"And your parents? Are they in the army too?" Dean asked leading the way into the kitchen.

"No, Mom grows food for a food store and Dad works at a bank. They said it was up to us if we wanted to go to the Academy, Lucifer and Michael both did, and then Gabriel, and I want to be like them, so I wanted to too." Castiel smiled for the first time and Dean mussed the dark hair on his head with a chuckle.

"Brothers will do that," He agreed. "What do you think? Eggs for breakfast? Or maybe pancakes?"

Castiel's eyes went wide. "I, you don't have to go out of your way sir, um, Dean."

"I'm not bud, I promise anything I can make isn't exactly gourmet, but it'll be better than the crap you get at the academy. The place hasn't changed much in 15 years I bet."

"I guess not." Castiel agreed, "Um, I like eggs better," He supplied hopefully.

"Me too." Dean agreed and went over to the fridge to grab the supplies for breakfast.

A few minutes later he had a large pan of eggs frying on the stove top when Mandy came padding down the hall with her hair still pinned up from the previous night, though it had become quite disheveled in the time since.

"Makin' eggs?" She asked approaching Dean sleepily. In the past few weeks she'd become more comfortable around him, especially after learning that he was having a baby and needed to practice being a daddy.

"Sure am princess, made enough for you and my buddy Castiel too." Dean gestured to the chair that Castiel was sitting in and Mandy slipped closer to Dean reaching out to take hold of his sweatpants. She still didn't react well to strangers, and after last night must be exhausted.

Dean tipped the eggs out onto a plate and carried them over to the table. He sat at the head next to Castiel and patted the seat to his right, across from the boy for Mandy to take.

"Where's Mommy and Daddy?" She asked not moving near to the new boy.

"Probably still asleep, we had a long night. Sorry about waking you up in the car."

"I don't remember." Mandy replied shaking her head.

"Oh, well no harm done then. You want breakfast?"

Mandy nodded.

"Well then you gotta sit at the table, you know how your mom is about manners." Dean patted the chair again, but Mandy shook her head. Dean paused for a moment and then let out a small smile, "Wanna sit with me instead?"

"Ok." Mandy nodded and climbed up onto his knee resting back against this chest. "Can I have eggs now?"

Dean chuckled and dished out three portions of eggs, passing one over to Castiel who was consciously staring at his lap. "Cas, this is Mandy, Mandy, Cas goes to school at the Academy."

"Daddy says when I'm bigger I'm gonna go there too, but now I just have my teacher who comes every day."

"I wish I could do that." Castiel spoke quietly.

Dean sensed that the conversation wouldn't go well on the current topic and quickly switched to "Castiel is going to stay with us for a few days, is that alright Mandy?"

She eyed the boy suspiciously "But he lives at school."

"I know princess, but we're going to have him stay here, see his family lives pretty far away and sometimes it's nice to be able to live with a family instead of at school."

"Ok." Mandy shrugged and took a bite of egg, apparently content with the arrangement.

Over the next 20 minutes the rest of the apartment woke up and came yawning into the kitchen. Olivia smiled fondly at Castiel, wishing him a good morning and asked if he wanted some orange juice.

"Yes please," He answered quietly again not meeting anyone's eye.

Elizabeth fumbled with the coffee maker until it was steaming away making enough for herself and the boys, Olivia didn't drink coffee. Once she had a mug full she took the seat next to Castiel and turned to him.

"I'm glad to see you awake and well,"

Castiel nodded and did not look up from his plate.

"I'm Elizabeth, what is your name honey?" She asked hugging the mug close to her body, even inside it was still cold.

"I'm Castiel Novak ma'am." He replied sounding a bit automatic.

"Castiel, that's an interesting name," Elizabeth said thoughtfully, "We didn't have anything like it in the South."

"What'cha gonna name the baby?" Mandy asked around a bite of eggs.

Elizabeth smiled and absentmindedly placed a hand on her stomach, she hadn't started to show yet.

"Not sure, I guess it depends if it's a boy or a girl." She glanced up at Sam who was pulling the necessities for oatmeal out of a cabinet. "I don't suppose you could make some for me and your new niece or nephew could you?" She asked with a wry smile.

Sam snorted and grabbed another bowel. "That's a low blow, guilt tripping me like that."

The table laughed, all except Castiel who didn't seem to know what to make of the interactions around him.

"Mommy, can I show Cas my toys?" Mandy asked after finishing her breakfast.

Olivia nodded and added, "If he wants to that's fine."

Mandy's eyes lit up and she hopped down from Dean's lap gesturing hurriedly to Castiel "Come on, I have blocks and dolls and we can play knights and dragons!"

Castiel shot a worried glance at Dean who nodded encouragingly and stood to gather the children's plates, "Go on, it's Saturday, you don't have anything to do today."

As they disappeared around the corner, all eyes turned towards Dean, who chose to finish rinsing the dishes before returning to the table. Sam had finished making oatmeal by then and brought over the two bowels, passing one to Elizabeth.

"So?" Olivia asked expectantly.

"He said that some of the older boys were messing with his stuff, took a picture he had of his parents and teasing him about missing them and all. I mean, he's 8 years old, what did you expect him to do, he freaked out and started attacking the kids, got himself beat pretty bad based on how he was moving this morning. I'll take a look later to be sure but I think it's just bruises, nothing broken. But since he started the physical part, the teachers said he was at fault and, this is verbatim from his mouth, 'if you want to act like an animal you can go sleep with the animals outside.' He's lucky we came back when we did, hypothermia can get real bad real quick, but I think he's alright now." Dean swirled the remains of his coffee in the mug and didn't look up.

"Alright? He's alright?" Elizabeth nearly exploded, and then lowered her voice again, "Nothing about this is alright!" She hissed. "Children are treated like animals, god worse than animals. I know the South isn't exactly innocent, but they never-" She broke off sharply. "he could have died. His parents, do they even know what kinds of things happen here?"

"Probably not, not exactly anyway, most of the kids that come here would be starving at home, their parents can't afford to feed them, the economy is in the toilet and we don't have much in the way of growing our own food, not like in the South anyway." Sam replied. "Some of the kids get scouted out of local schools for talents; the parents think it's an honor. They don't know how it is, honestly the general public is pretty hard off and ignorant of what the president is doing."

Elizabeth thought back to meeting Kevin's mother the previous night. Now it all made sense, Linda Tran was being used as a pawn to keep her son in line. Kevin was definitely smart enough to put two and two together. Screw up and Mommy gets hurt. Elizabeth shuddered to think what Roman had on Charlie or Gadreel. Neither of them talked much about family, and she wasn't sure how to bring it up without arousing suspicion.

"He's not going back to that place." Elizabeth responded clanking her mug down a little harder than she should have.

"Beth, he has to. We can keep him here until he's healed up, but after that," Dean sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"After that what? Just let him go back into the care of people who'd just as soon kill him than teach a bit of conflict resolution?"

"They gave him a choice, from now on he can toughen up, or he knows how it'll go." Sam put in and Elizabeth swiveled in her chair snapping at him,

"And if he had died? What if that was Mandy? You're ok with sending your own child into that hellhole?" She curled around her stomach again fighting tears.

Olivia stood and went to her offering comfort, but nothing better than Sam and Dean had said. "It's how it is, we can't save everyone Beth, what we can do is make sure that our loved ones are safe."

"So save us and screw everyone else? That's exactly the kind of attitude that Roman has, he's still in this war for the personal gains he's getting, the rest of the country be dammed." Elizabeth spat.

"I'm not saying it's the right way or that it will always be like this, but right now, today, and for this situation, it's what we can do. It might change someday, but if it doesn't you need to understand that." Olivia replied in a calm voice. She picked up one of the unused napkins from the table and used it to wipe back her friend's tears before handing it over so Elizabeth could clean herself up.

Nothing more was said on the topic until everyone was finished eating and the dishes were done.

"I'm going to find out who was in charge of that dormitory last night." Sam announced reaching for his coat. "And I'll let them know we have Castiel with us, at least for a week."

"What about his classes?" Olivia asked, "Won't he get into more trouble if he misses?"

"We'll see, maybe he can go to class and come back here after? One thing for sure is he's not going back to that dorm until I figure some things out." With that he left, the door swinging shut behind him.


	12. Fortunate Son

_AN: Hi! Spring break is a welcome time in my life, and because of that, here's a present for you!_

Sam was gone for most of the morning and at about 11, Mandy's teacher came for a few hours of lessons as usual, even on the weekends. She put up a little fight about wanting to stay and play with Castiel, but after being assured that he would still be there when she returned at 2 went along happily.

Elizabeth and Olivia had retreated into the master bedroom to do something or other and Dean was reading on the couch when Castiel wandered into the living room.

"Hey," Dean greeted looking up.

Castiel met his gaze but didn't speak.

"So Sam went to talk to the teacher in charge of the dormitory last night." Dean told him and immediately Castiel's eyes went wide and he looked terrified.

"No, I'm gonna get in trouble when I go back!" He fretted wringing his hands nervously looking like he was about to cry.

Dean stood and quickly moved over to the trembling boy. "It's alright, Cas buddy calm down." He spoke in a slow controlled tone, letting long even breathes out that Castiel tried to match. "Come on, let's go sit down and talk a little ok?"

Castiel nodded but was still faintly shaking. Dean laid a hand on his back and guided him over to the couch. "Ok Bud, just breathe ok, no one is going to hurt you, I promise. Not those boys, not the teachers, no one."

"But Miss Naomi will be mad! She's scary when she gets mad and one time she hurt one of the boys real bad, I heard people talking about it," Castiel broke off shaking his head. He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on top staring at the carpet.

"Naomi? Was she there last night?" Dean asked.

Castiel nodded. "She pushed me outside and locked the door."

Dean saw red and had to take a minute to bite back a few choice words about this "Miss Naomi."

"Don't worry about her Cas, you're not going to go back there for a while, and Sam and I will make sure Miss Naomi can't do anything to you." Dean assured him. He thought for a minute before asking, "Cas, how are your ribs?"

Castiel looked up and shrugged. "Ok I guess, they hurt sometimes."

"Can I look at them? We need to make sure nothing's cracked or broken." Dean said.

Castiel reluctantly unfolded himself with a bit of a wince. Dean knew from his time at the academy that acknowledging pain was assign of weakness that was beaten out of the kids early on, just because Castiel wasn't talking about it did not mean he was alright.

He pulled the oversized t shirt up over his head and Dean grimaced at the large splotches of red and blue that had bloomed across his chest and back since yesterday.

"It looks worse than it is I think," Dean said more to calm himself than the boy. "Let me know if anything hurts more than a bruise," He began prodding along the fringes of the bruises with the pads of his fingers, and aside from a few sharp breaths Castiel was quiet.

"So you and Mandy seemed to get on well." Dean commented, he'd finished the edges and now needed to check where the darkest bruises were blooming, distracting Castiel would help.

"She's nice, a little bossy I guess but that's ok." Castiel replied, and Dean laughed.

"Yeah, that she is, what did you end up playing?"

"We built a castle out of blocks and I was the dragon and she was the knight, I tried to knock the tower over and get the princess, but she's really fast, she kept getting me first." Castiel smiled, which quickly turned to a grimace when Dean nudged along his lower left side. "Almost done?" He asked, voice a little higher than normal.

"Yeah bud, I think your fine, just be careful for the next week or so, and let someone know if anything changes," Dean reached out and ruffled his hair like he had that morning. "How about you got take a shower and I'll see about finding some clothes that fit you better." Dean held up the t shirt that Castiel had been fairly swimming in all day.

"Yes Sir," Castiel replied and Dean was about to remind him that he didn't need the formality when he noticed the grin Castiel was hiding behind his hand.

"Get out of here soldier, that's an order." He swung the shirt playfully at the boy who ran off towards the bathroom with a giggle. In less than 24 hours Castiel had been allowed to become a true 8 year old boy again, he'd actually laughed. Dean took a minute to be happy about the fact before he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door to go over to the dormitory and grab some of Castiel's own clothing for him to wear for the rest of the week.

He hadn't been inside the dorms of the academy since his childhood, but the familiar sights and sounds were enough to bring back memories, not all of them pleasant, but not all bad either. His and Sam's upbringing had been anything but traditional, but they'd had each other's backs. Upon entering the younger boys' dormitory, the room fell silent until he muttered "At ease" and all the children went back to chattering and doing things kids do. Boys from age 6 to 12 were roomed here, and Dean almost found himself walking down the row of beds that would have taken him to Sam's bunk when they were kids. Dean hadn't lived in here himself, but spent enough time in the dorm to be completely familiar with the set up. He approached one pair of boys and asked where Castiel Novak's bunk was, and was directed down a middle row about 2/3 of the way back in the large room.

The unassuming bed was neatly made and obviously hadn't been slept in, and the headboard was covered in photos and trinkets. Dean saw Castiel with an older boy with honey colored hair and eyes, then both of them with two young men, one dark haired like Castiel, and the other blonde. These must be his brothers, Gabriel and Michael and Lucifer. Two drawers underneath the bed and a chest at its foot was all the space each boy was given for personal belongings. Dean opened one of the drawers and began pulling out a stack of neatly folded shirts, and then moved to the next one and found pairs of pants. He was stacking them on top of the bed when a voice rang through the low hum of conversation.

"Hey! What are you doing!"

Dean straightened up and found the source of the voice in an older boy storming towards him with a look of worry. He was a few years older now than in the photo, but Dean was sure this was Gabriel. "Where are you taking that?! Where is Castiel?"

"Calm down, you're making a scene." Dean replied in a calm, but still authoritative voice.

Gabriel's shoulders were heaving with the exertion of getting across the dormitory and he only marginally calmed down at Dean's reprimand.

"Where is my brother?" He asked again, angry now.

"He's alright, come on, I'll take you to him." Dean gathered up the pile of clothes and turned towards the door, Gabriel followed a half step behind, and without turning around Dean could feel him staring a hole into the back of his head.

"Where are we going?" Gabriel asked, he'd almost turned towards the infirmary when they passed the turn off, but Dean kept right on towards the exit to the building.

"Officer's apartments." Dean replied, "I'll explain when we get there,"

Gabriel was quiet for the rest of the trip, but Dean knew his shadow had to be worried sick about his little brother.

"My name is Dean by the way," He said as they walked up the hall to Sam and Olivia's apartment.

"Gabriel Novak." Gabriel replied stiffly, he looked at each door they passed, hoping Castiel would pop out from behind it. Dean didn't blame him for not believing that Castiel was alright until he saw it for himself but he wished he could offer the boy some comfort.

"Here, hold this for me? I need to open the door." Dean passed the stack of clothes to Gabriel and pulled out the key to the apartment, the doors locked from the inside as a security measure. Gabriel glanced at the name on the door, but barely let recognition show in his features. Dean knew he must realize now to whom he'd mouthed off, and was probably expecting the reprimand of his life, but Castiel's safety overrode that concern at the moment.

Once they passed the threshold, a small dark haired rocket shot past Dean, right into Gabriel's waiting arms.

"Cassie!" Gabriel breathed out in relief, "You're ok? Really? I heard about what happened, and then no one saw you all day and I thought, god I'm so glad you're alright!" Gabriel tucked Castiel's head into his chest and held tight for a while, and for his part Castiel didn't seem to mind.

"I'm ok Gabe, I promise," he said after a few minutes, "Can I go get dressed?" He pulled back and then Gabriel seemed to realize that Castiel as wearing an oversized t shirt and his pajama pants.

"Yeah bud, sure." He smiled and gestured at the now unfolded heap of clothing that he'd dropped when he saw his brother. "Sorry 'bout that, I know how you get about keeping clean." Gabriel shoved Castiel towards the pile and the latter grabbed an outfit at random and hurried off to dress.

Dean chuckled at the interaction and Gabriel jumped a little, seeming to remember just then that he was there.

"Um, I'd- I should apologize for my behavior earlier." Gabriel said with his eyes cast down, "I'll accept punishment as you see fit Sir."

Dean let out a slow breath.

"Tell me why you acted as you did soldier." He demanded slipping easily back into Commander mode.

"I let my emotions cloud my judgment Sir. It won't happen again." Gabriel replied softly.

"Gabriel," Dean surprised the boy by using his given name, and he looked up, quickly jerking back down again. "I'm not going to report you son, I know you were just worried about Cas, hell I'd do the same thing if it were me and Sammy."

"I, I'm not I trouble?" Gabriel seemed surprised.

"No, you're not in trouble, but I'll give you some advice: keep that emotion under wraps, anyone else would have hung you out to dry for that outburst."

"Yes Sir," Gabriel replied with a quick nod. He seemed a bit at a loss for what to do with himself now that he was back in a rational frame of mind and stood quite still at attention until Dean chuckled and muttered "At ease."

"Cas told me he's the youngest, and you two have older brothers in the army." He said relaxing against the counter and crossing his arms.

"Yes Sir, Michael is a private and Lucifer just got promoted to a captain last month." Gabriel affirmed.

"Have you seen them since they deployed?" Dean asked.

"No Sir, but they write, and Michael is closer to home so on leave he visits our parents." Gabriel smiled.

"You miss home?"

"I am grateful to have been accepted for study at the academy Sir."

"That's not what I asked son, it's alright to be homesick." Dean reassured Gabriel who nodded briefly as Castiel re-emerged from the bedroom in his own clothes, positively beaming.

"What are you talking about?" He asked sidling up next to Gabriel. The closeness wasn't missed by Dean who had to turn away to hide a smirk, the boys obviously didn't see enough of each other.

"Family, your other brothers mostly." Dean answered.

"They're far away, I miss them." Castiel nodded looking down, but in the next second the door opened and both boys snapped to attention as Sam returned.

"At ease." He grumbled and kicked off his boots near the entry way. "I need to talk to you, alone!" He snapped at Dean who raised an eyebrow and followed Sam down the hall to an empty room.

"So, what did you find out" Dean asked.

"They've gotten worse since we left Dean, I mean it was bad then, but now," Sam shook his head. "They closed ranks as soon as I stated asking about last night, I mean the whole place just shut down. I even tried to pull rank on them to find out who was in charge last night, but they just told me to file a request and they'd get back to me. Crowley's stepped over about a dozen lines, but this is just sick, they're kids!" Sam panted in anger and seemed more angered by Dean's calmness.

"Cas told me who it was, someone named Miss Naomi, and apparently she has a reputation for being harsh." Dean supplied. "Earlier you were on the train of "this is just how things are here," What happened?"

"I walked back into that place and it all just came back Dean, all of it. Losing mom and dad, Jo, and then everything after." He shook his head. "And now I'm just letting it happen to Mandy too."

"Whoa, slow down Sammy. That's not happening yet, it might not at all." Dean reminded him.

"I just keep thinking about something like this happening to her. And Olivia wants to have another baby but I mean, how can she even think about bringing another kid into-" Sam broke off abruptly realizing the delicacy of the conversation. "I mean, that wasn't how I meant it to sound."

"I know it wasn't." Dean replied "And you're not wrong, the first thing that went through my mind when I found out Elizabeth was pregnant was that we needed to choose a side, and we couldn't go back to the South. Not that things are so much better down there either; it's gotten worse since we left from what I hear. But we need to focus on right now, so they're trying to cover it up. Well that's not exactly surprising right? I mean, it's hardly good for the reputation of the place."

"Yeah, they rely on the propaganda and conflict to keep the academy full."

"Then they shouldn't fight us too badly if we keep Cas here for a while. Can't have too much talk about bad press." Dean decided.

"He'll have to go back eventually you know, and it's not going to be any easier for him." Sam warned. "I think you're attached to him already, don't set yourself up to get hurt."

"He needs someone looking out for him Sam." Dean argued.

"He has Gabriel,"

"Gabriel's not enough."

"How would you know that?" Sam retorted.

"Because I wasn't enough when it was us." Dean replied quietly and Sam stared.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"He's just a kid. I was just a kid and so were you man, this situation is just so screwed up, but at least I can do something for him, and Gabriel,"

"We can't save them all, isn't that what you said to Elizabeth when she found him?"

"I gotta save someone Sammy, because if I can't even save one kid here, make their life just a bit less terrible than it would be, then I don't even know what I'm doing here to be honest. I don't care about this stupid war, I don't care who wins, I just want it to be over so that I can move away from the city and raise my family in peace."

"You tried that, you tried to be in the background, it never happens. You even ran away to the other side and you're right back where you started man!" Sam retorted angrily. "I understand what you want Dean, don't you think that's what I want too? Do you think that I want to have nightmares of Olivia's blood all over my hands? Sometimes she still flinches when I touch her! I don't want her to have to live here, surrounded by the people who killed her friends and family and made her bleed and hurt and have her pretend it's all ok, but have panic attacks at night!" Sam took a shuddering breath. "If there was any way to get out of this shitty life don't you think we would have found it by now?"

"I don't know Sam, I really don't know."

"We're surviving Dean, that's what we can do. We can survive this war and make sure that the people we love do too." Sam paused and looked towards the door which was still cracked open. He wondered if their argument was heard by the rest of the apartment. "And if you want to adopt two boys into that group, then I guess I'm with you."

Dean smiled weakly and clasped a hand on Sam's shoulder, "Thanks."

"Come on, they'll wonder what's going on." Sam opened the door and Dean followed. Castiel and Gabriel had been sitting on the couch and hastily made to stand up as the brothers returned but a dismissive gesture from Dean stopped them.

"So, we talked it over and decided that Cas is going to stay here for a bit, at least until your bruises heal back up." Dean announced. "Gabriel, you're welcome to visit anytime you want, while your brother is here or after." A thought occurred to Dean just then, "Who's your mentor?" The question was directed at Gabriel.

"I don't have one yet Sir," He replied.

"Yeah you do," Dean smiled and Gabriel's eyes widened.

"You mean you, I'm honored Sir, truly." He bowed his head slightly in respect and Dean chuckled.

"Nah, I think you'll be a great fit."

Mentors were usually assigned by the academy, and Dean knew that what he was doing was unheard of, but also that he was high enough in rank to pull it off. Mentors acted as a teacher in their field to the student, as well as role model and if need be disciplinarian. The bond could either be very good, or very bad. At least, he'd heard of good ones, both he and Sam had been mentored by Alistair. One less student that had to interact with him was better for everyone.

"We start on Monday, I'll let the teachers know that you'll begin half days at the academy. I expect you to be in interrogation by 1 pm each day, and make sure you've eaten lunch beforehand." Dean continued and Gabriel eagerly nodded, this was an exciting opportunity and he knew it.

"Can Gabe stay for dinner?" Castiel asked hopefully.

"Sure kid," Dean smiled.


	13. Dirty Deeds

_AN: Hi there! Now that I'm half way through my spring break, and finally have a minute to myself, have another chapter! I'm always curious if people can predict where the story will go, so if you leave a review, try and guess, and I'll tell you if you're on the right track._

The remainder of the evening was lively with the extra guests at the table. Mandy returned from lessons and seemed to trust Castiel when he told her that Gabriel was alright. Olivia and Elizabeth returned as well and were pleased to meet Gabriel and welcomed him to visit anytime as Dean had. Only Sam was quiet until the group broke up for bed.

"Something wrong?" Olivia asked lightly as she closed the door of the master bedroom behind her. Mandy had insisted she wanted her aunt to read her a bedtime story (practice for the new baby, she'd assured them.) "You've been awful quiet tonight."

Sam sighed as he pulled off his shoes and socks "I'm alright Liv,"

She tutted under her breath and came up to him sliding her fingers into his hair and he relaxed into the touch, "Well that's obviously a lie Sammy, tell me what's wrong?" She wasn't demanding an answer and he knew it, which was why he felt he had to be honest.

"I've been off since I went back to the Academy today."

"Well that much is obvious," Olivia replied sinking onto his lap, "Want to talk about it?"

"It's just, that place is all bad memories for me. A lot of my life is bad memories, so I guess my tolerance it higher than most. But something stuck with me today, and I can't stop thinking about how easily that could have been Mandy left out in the cold. I know you want another baby Liv, I mean it's not like I don't, it's just that everything is telling me it's a terrible idea. This is no place to be raising our daughter, and to bring another child into it, I couldn't do that to an innocent baby."

Olivia was quiet. She kept her face down and pressed her cheek to his chest. "I know. Everything you said is true." Sam brought his arms up around her and held her close. "But I still want another child." She huddled into him "Does that make me a bad mother?"

Sam started at the thought. "Oh God, no. Sweetheart, you could never be a bad mother, not in a million years. You are so strong and brave and so loving to Mandy, and our whole messed up family."

"Ok." Olivia replied and Sam pried her off his front and helped her into the bed. It wasn't until he had turned off the light and climbed into the other side of the bed that he spoke again.

"Dean told me today that saving Cas is something he can do to make this whole thing better, I think that maybe this could be the thing that makes our lives better, being good parents."

"For Mandy," Olivia agreed,

"And her little brother or sister." Sam whispered into her hair.

Olivia stiffened and then clung tightly to Sam and began to cry, "Really? You want to? But I thought that today-"

"Shh, don't worry about all that, I really want to. I always wanted to, I was just scared, I'm still scared, but I'd rather be scared about this than anything else."

"I love you Sam," Olivia breathed and popped her head up for a kiss.

"Love you too Liv. So, did you want to start trying tonight, or?" He asked with a smirk.

Olivia burst out laughing and smacked his arm.

Monday shone bright and unseasonably warm. By the time that Gabriel was making his way across the compound to interrogation, much of the snow that had been sitting for weeks now and turning greyer with each passing day had melted. He supposed the puddles were a bit better than the dismaying sight of dirty snow, but not much. This place wasn't at all like home, where the trees were beautiful even in the dead of winter. He'd always liked snow, and playing in it with Lucifer. His oldest brother seemed to have an affinity for the cold weather, and certainly enjoyed it more than the rest of the family. More than once when he was young his mother had remarked about moving closer to the southern border where the temperatures were milder.

As he approached the correct building he paused and took a moment to let all the emotions that had been buzzing inside him for the last day settle. There was the pride of course, he'd been personally chosen by Dean Winchester, but there was also apprehension, and general nervousness as he didn't really know what went on behind the doors of interrogation. Before he could chicken out, or be counted late he shoved the door open and was surprised to see Dean waiting just beyond the threshold, arms crossed and leaning against the wall staring at the floor. His eyes snapped up as Gabriel entered and he raised his head a fraction of an inch in greeting.

"Hey,"

"Hello Sir,"

Dean let out a low chuckle and straightened up "What'd I say about the Sir thing?"

"Right, sorry." Gabriel ducked his head sheepishly and shifted his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other.

"Some ground rules for your time here," Dean spoke and began walking down the long hallway gesturing for Gabriel to follow. "First, be on time, today was a great start but don't get lazy on me. Second, eat, but not right before you come. I'm not gonna lie to you, some of the stuff you see here will make you queasy but on an empty stomach you could pass out and I ain't gonna haul your limp ass back to the barracks."

Gabriel nodded with rapt attention as Dean turned first one corner, then another.

"Third, you got a question, ask it. I'd rather you know exactly what you're doing in there than have to clean up a mess from a mistake. Fourth, if you think you can't hack it, tell me. I won't think less of you."

"Yes Si- um, Dean." Gabriel replied, "Could I ask a question now?"

"Rule three, go ahead."

"What exactly am I going to be doing?" Gabriel asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"Interrogation isn't all about sticking sharp things in people, sure that's part of it, but what you'll be doing, really learning how to do is to get inside their heads. Any idiot can torture someone, what you'll be learning is true interrogation, getting information. Most of the guys we have back here just poke and prod until they hear what they want. That's dangerous. There's a point where you'd say anything to make the pain stop." They'd arrived at a door, not unlike the others along the hall they'd been walking, but Dean pressed his thumb to a fingerprint scanner near the handle and it blinked green before popping open for them. He pressed a few buttons on the pane next to it and turned to Gabriel, "Now you, and it'll register your fingerprint so you can get in and out without me."

Gabriel followed instructions and a few seconds later the pad blinked green again and Dean nodded, apparently satisfied. He opened the door all the way and let Gabriel pass inside first. The sparse furniture of the room was a metal table with a bar around the rim, two metal chairs, the far one Gabriel could see was bolted to the ground, and a cart off to the side that Gabriel glanced at and then quickly away from. The neat little rows of shiny metal implements were just waiting for a skilled hand to use them.

The door closing made Gabriel jump and he turned quickly to see a small smile on the corner of Dean's face.

"Nervous?" He asked stepping fully into the room.

"A little." Gabriel replied, and then hastily corrected it to. "Yes."

"That's normal, I'd venture to say healthy even. You should be nervous in this place, hell I am too."

"Really?"

"Every day kid," Dean nodded to the table, "Take a seat."

Gabriel turned back to the two chairs, mind whirring over which one he was supposed to take. Dean seemed to read him easily and commented lightly, "whichever you want, I'll just be a minute." He drifted over to the cart and turned his back entirely to Gabriel, who was still trying to decide between the two chairs. A length he sat in the closer one, and waited patiently for Dean to turn around.

When he did Gabriel was surprised to see that he hadn't even touched any of the implements on the cart. He nodded at Gabriel's choice and came around to sit in the bolted chair, leaning his elbows on the table and clasping his hands together under his chin. The whole effect was confusing and bewildering to Gabriel.

"So you picked the interrogator's chair, not the prisoner's, why?"

"I, um, I figured that if I'm going to be an interrogator, I should get used to the chair right?" Gabriel replied.

"True. There an implied power dynamic in the way the room is set up. If I'm playing the prisoner today, and you're playing interrogator, then you have control, right?"

"Right,"

"You can control your own position, physically I mean, lean back in the chair, slide it out so you can put your feet up on the corner," Dean spoke easily, and though his words said that Gabriel was in charge, his demeanor and attitude seemed to still portray a sense of comfort and ease that left Gabriel more shaken than anything else.

Hesitantly, Gabriel did as he was instructed and immediately felt as though he was in the wrong, it must have showed on his face because Dean leaned back in the chair and studied him for a moment before speaking again, "Ok, I'm going to add one more rule, which really shouldn't need to be said, but I'll say it anyway, it I ask you a question, I want an honest answer. Even if you think it's not what I want to hear. You're going to be uncomfortable in the beginning, and I need to know when, and why so we can work on it, alright?"

Gabriel nodded.

"So in the spirit of that, how are you feeling right now?"

Gabriel thought for a minute trying to come up with a word for his current emotional state.

"Good or bad?" Dean prompted,

"Not bad, but not really good either," Gabriel replied.

"Scared?"

"A little, I guess,"

"Of what?"

"I don't know."

"punishment?" Dean asked softly,

"I think, maybe?" Gabriel replied. He moved to sit upright again and Dean nodded approval, still watching him intently.

"Scared of being punished. Why? You've done nothing wrong." Dean continued, his tone said there was a right answer, and Gabriel struggled to find it.

He was at a loss, and didn't like the feeling at all. "I don't know," He finally admitted and couldn't meet Dean's eye.

"You're supposed to know the answer, that's what you're taught up in the academy. Never admit you don't understand, never show weakness. It's engrained in you Gabriel, in all the kids that go through that place, I know because I felt the same way. I think that you're scared because this place puts you off balance. You don't know what the right answer is, and I haven't told you. I'd imagine that's not a very comfortable place to be, mentally."

"No,"

"That's the first part of what I want to teach you. I need to get you completely comfortable with that feeling, not knowing what might happen next, because you need to be able to roll with the punches in here. Some shmuck could spend 6 hours telling you that he doesn't know anything and the next second be bargaining some unrelated, but worthwhile, information in exchange for leniency."

"I don't understand," Gabriel replied honestly. Dean wasn't making much sense to him right now.

"Say there's a prisoner right, and you're trying to get him to give up the location of some rebels, or information on an upcoming attack, and he won't talk, but then suddenly wants to tell you all about an unrelated rebel group in the hopes that you'll find them much more interesting than him. Now of course there's the possibility that he's lying, but I've gotten really good at knowing when people are lying. On the chance that he's telling the truth and doesn't care that he's throwing someone else under the bus, you need to be able to keep him talking, get all the useful info on that other group that you can, but also remember that the info on the upcoming raid is your primary objective."

"So you want me to unlearn everything that academy taught me?" Gabriel asked, he knew his eyes were bugging out of his head.

"Basically." Dean smirked. "Don't worry, I'll help you, you'll get it. By the time you walk into your first real interrogation, it'll be second nature."

The rest of the afternoon was spent in much the same way, Dean explained a bit more about the process of interrogation, beginning with just talking, and leading up to all the poking and cutting.

"Most times it doesn't get to that, and honestly, Sam and me tend to get the hold outs so more of what you see with me will be towards the drastic end of the spectrum, but the vast majority of interrogations end with a confession after a few vague threats."

They ended with a walk through of the interrogation wing and Dean watched Gabriel carefully to see how he was reacting to the environment. Only one they were back at the main door and Dean offered to walk back to the barracks with him did Gabriel finally fully relax.

"Interesting first day huh?" Dean commented as the crossed the yard. "What are you going to tell the other boys?"

"I don't know," Gabriel replied honestly. "What did you tell them when it was you?"

"Nothing." Dean shrugged. "I wasn't exactly social with the other boys in the dormitory; I spent most of my time with Sam in the younger boys dorm."

"You guys were pretty close then?" Gabriel asked, he kept his face down and Dean suspected he was thinking about his own brothers.

"As kids, yeah. We were inseparable, and Jo would try and keep up, we always waited for her eventually though." Dean smiled at the thought, and then regretted saying it out loud in the next moment.

"Jo?" Gabriel asked, looking up.

"Yeah, we had a little sister too. She, she's gone now." He explained.

"I always wanted a sister." Gabriel nodded, "Mom said if she had a girl she would have named her Anna."

"Well I'm pretty sure Mandy has adopted you and Cas as her big brothers, so you sort of do have a sister." Dean smiled again.

"I wish Michael and Lucifer were here too." Gabriel sobered at the thought, but Dean clapped a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry about them, if they were good enough to make it through this place and get promoted through the ranks, they'll be fine."

They'd reached the dormitory by that point and Dean turned to go as Gabriel stepped through the door with a wave. He couldn't help but see a little of himself in the boy.

He was in a relatively good mood as he crossed back towards the apartment and almost didn't see the small girl jogging towards him until she called out to him.

"Captain Winchester, Sir," He turned and she immediately stared at the ground.

"What is it?" He asked, tired, but not wanting to scare the girl any more than she probably already was.

"A message came in for you Sir. From President Roman." She held out a sealed envelope with the presidential stamp across the flap. "I was on my way to your apartment to deliver it, but then I saw you and I-"

"It's fine, thank you." Dean replied grabbing the envelope. He went to tear it open, but the girl was still there, looking anxious and confused.

"Is there something else?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No Sir, I wasn't sure if I was dismissed," She seemed at a loss for how to conduct herself.

"Dismissed Cadet. Go get some dinner." He replied with a small smile.

She hurried off, apparently eager to get to dinner. Dean turned back towards home with a chuckle and tore open the envelope. As he walked and read, the mile slid off his face, replaced by a hard scowl.

"President Richard Roman would like to invite Captain and Mrs. Dean Winchester to participate in a campaign to rally the support of the nation as well as welcome you both back to the North with open arms." Details of a date and time for the photo shoot and subsequent interviews were printed below the salutation.

Dean jammed the paper into his pocket and fairly stormed down the hall to the apartment door. Elizabeth was sitting on the couch with a steaming mug of something and looked up at his abrupt entry.

"So," She commented taking in his expression. "Rough day?"

"It was fine until I got this." He replied and thrust the now very wrinkled paper towards her. As she read he collapsed next to her on the couch and bent to untie his boots.

"We've been invited to participate in a campaign. What does that mean?" Elizabeth finally said after a silent minute taking in the address.

"Propaganda shoot." Dean replied shortly. "You remember all those posters and commercials that floated down to us in the South after Olivia was taken? That was Roman's way of using her and Sam to drum up support, patriotism and all that crap. Now he wants to use us to."

"We can't decline can we." Elizabeth sighed dropping the paper in disgust. "It's like the party isn't it? He wants to show off his new toys."

"Yeah, and we're going to let him." Dean sighed back.


End file.
